The Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov may have finally lost his patience with plans being made for his country behind his back. According to a BBC Monitoring transcript of a state television report, on June 14 Niyazov criticised the European Union in failing to consult with his government over the construction of a gas pipeline through Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. While speaking with a number of Japanese at a publicly broadcast encounter, Niyazov also spoke of his irritation about not being informed of Europe’s plans to transport Turkmen gas to its own markets.
In reprising the theme if his nation’s neutrality, Niyazov also reminded his listeners of Turkmenistan’s freedom to choose its own trading partners. He stressed that at the given moment, Turkmenistan offered greater preference to commercial relations with Russia and especially China.
Niyazov made his remarks before a delegation of Japanese businessmen led by Minoru Murofushi, Itochu Corporation CEO and head of the Turkmen-Japanese joint committee on economic cooperation. The Turkmen president, however, rejected suggestions by Murofushi that Ashgabat should consider the extension of polypropylene production at the Turkmenbashi refinery on the Caspian coast. At this point, Niyazov made some pointed observations on how the Japanese Foreign Minister recently attended a meeting of Central Asian foreign minister in which he made remarks about the construction of the TAP pipeline, again without consulting the Turkmen government.
In also referring to Japan’s “crushing” financial terms for renewed work upon the Turkmenbashi refinery, Niyazov also mentioned the two percent interest credit offered by China for the purchase of drilling equipment, railway carriages and ferrous goods. Niyazov, furthermore, cited the issue of China’s joint participation on projects for which it is offering loans, again emphasising the uncompetitive rates offered by Japan, which range from six to eight percent.
Niyazov’s lecture served to express his annoyance at some of the geo-strategic position taking place around the resources of nominally neutral country. As well as rebuking the European Union, on one hand, for failing to consult with it adequately and, perhaps on the other hand, for making assumptions about the importance of its trading status with the Turkmen market. The European Parliament will be voting on whether to adopt an interim trade agreement with Turkmenistan in a forthcoming plenary session in early July 2006. The proposal has come under severe criticism from a number of human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, International Helsinki Federation, and the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights.
Comments made by Niyazov also illustrated China’s growing value to the Turkmen government and indicate the future course of the country’s trade development:

“As a rule, we choose partners in this sphere ourselves. We have already chosen China as a partner in oil and gas sphere and we had struck a major deal with China on the development of four large oil and gas rich areas on the eastern side of Amu Darya river.”

That Niyazov should have chosen to make his remarks before a Japanese delegation cannot have been other than a calculated rebuke of Tokyo and the declaration of Beijing’s latest victory in consolidating its geopolitical and financial supremacy in Central Asia.