On 19 November, the Azerbaijani governmental delegation headed by the Deputy Foreign Minister Halaf Halafov came to Ashgabat to participate in the subsequent round of Turkmen-Azerbaijani talks on cooperation in the field of oil and gas industry. Before the talks began, the Azerbaijani information agency APA had informed:

The delegation members will hold talks at the ministry of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan on the issues related to the legal status of the Caspian Sea, the Trans-Caspian pipelines as well as organization of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov’s visit to Azerbaijan.

Just a few days later, on 22 November, the delegation was joined by another guest from over the Caspian Sea. This time it was Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizade, who came to take part in the summit of prime ministers of the CIS (organized in Ashgabat for the first time since 1993). Rasizade took advantage of the summit to meet with Berdymukhammedov. The announcement issued after the meeting which was, as usual, skimpy and full of well-worn platitudes did not, unfortunately, shed much light on the details of the talks.

As the Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.ru reports quoting the press service of the head of state, Artur Rasizade conveyed Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s greetings and best wishes to Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. At the meeting the sides discussed issues of interstate bilateral cooperation which is based on trust and mutual benefit. The president of Turkmenistan and his guest agreed to intensify the relations, first of all in the trade-economic and humanitarian spheres, the press service said.

In the case of Azerbaijani-Turkmen relations, it is not only the content of the talks that matters, but also the fact that the meetings on such a high level are held so often. A few years ago, representatives of Azerbaijan would have nothing to look for in Ashgabat. Relations between the two countries were very tense, the main reason for that being the conflict surrounding the Kyapaz deposit (called Serdar in Turkmenistan) whose resources probably amount to around 150 million barrels of gas and oil condensate. It is situated in the very middle of the Caspian Sea, which makes both Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan claim the right to its exploitation.

After Berdymukhammedov came to power and called for improvement of relations with all neighbouring states, relations between Ashgabat and Baku started to warm up. The presidents of the two states have already met twice, the Turkmen Embassy in Baku — closed in the times of Saparmurat Niyazov — was reopened, and the cross-governmental Azerbaijani-Turkmen committee was set up whose main goal is to work out a compromise concerning the Kyapaz deposit and to delimit the boundaries of the Caspian Sea national sectors for both countries. Moreover, Azerbaijan did not exclude the possibility of joint exploitation of the deposit. An agreement reached in this matter would be a landmark step forward, as the Kyapaz resources could be exported to the West through the network of South-Caucasian pipelines (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum).

The improvement in Azerbaijani-Turkmen relation is strongly supported by Washington, as this would facilitate the regulation of the status of the Caspian Sea and the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline lobbied by the US. This in turn would weaken Moscow’s position in the region, which is one of the main goals of the American policy in Central Asia.

President Berdymukhammedov will soon visit Azerbaijan. It will be the last Caspian state that he is scheduled to visit (he has so far been to Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran). It is possible that some binding documents will be signed on this occasion.