Two decisions, adopted in quick succession by the Council of the EU and the European Commission, signify major advances in developing the European Union’s common external policy on energy. The EU has decided to negotiate with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on natural gas supplies; and in... MORE

On July 7 powerful explosions in Abadan shook Turkmenistan’s political landscape. Following clear attempts to cover up the incident, a few days later the Turkmen regime had to admit that the incident had caused “some casualties.” Turkmenistan’s President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov demoted several government ministers, threatening... MORE

At a time when protesters are taking down the governments of long-serving authoritarian rulers in Middle Eastern and North African countries, opposition movements in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia are also taking their struggle to the streets in their respective countries to... MORE

The Russian-led security alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), which includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, has pledged to face security challenges in Central Asia by boosting military cooperation. Russian military officials urged the grouping to boost their defense ties. The... MORE

The Caspian nations have reiterated pledges to solve their differences later this year ahead of the Caspian summit in Moscow, but they apparently continued to disagree on a number of key issues. During a meeting in Baku on April 26 – 27, representatives of the... MORE

Turkmenistan is developing the environmental and legal cases for construction of a trans-Caspian gas pipeline to Azerbaijan, there to link up with the EU-backed Southern Gas Corridor to Europe. While Russia and Iran oppose trans-Caspian pipelines, ostensibly on ecological and legal grounds, Ashgabat has started... MORE

The Nabucco pipeline consortium has discreetly postponed its final investment decision by another year, this time until early 2012, with construction to start in 2012 “at the earliest” (Dow Jones, February 18, 21). The investment decision had previously been postponed in October 2010 for 2011,... MORE

As Central Asia opened up to the rest of the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union opportunities have emerged for the regional countries to build links with Europe, South-East Asia, and the Middle East. This has proved to be significant in the development... MORE

On January 14-15, European Commission President, Jose Manuel Barroso, and EU Energy Commissioner, Guenther Oettinger, paid an unprecedented joint visit to Turkmenistan. They arrived directly from Azerbaijan, whose President Ilham Aliyev approved that country’s accession to the EU-planned Southern Gas Corridor on January 13 (EDM,... MORE

Stakeholders in Nabucco and other Southern Corridor pipeline consortiums, as well as Shah Deniz project stakeholders in Azerbaijan, the European Commission, and many observers consider that investment decisions are a must in the first half of 2011.If finalized at this juncture, the investment decisions would... MORE