TURKMENISTAN: FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON EU ENERGY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001371

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM EPET KDEM EU FR TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON EU ENERGY
POLICY, HUMAN RIGHTS


Classified By: CHARGE RICHARD E. HOAGLAND FOR REASONS 1.4 (B),(D)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Charge met with French Ambassador
Christian Lechervy December 18 for a read-out of European
Union Special Representative for Central Asia Pierre Morel's
December 10-11 visit to Ashgabat for the opening of the UN
Preventive Diplomacy Center. As the contact representative
for the EU in Turkmenistan, Lechervy provided a detailed
discussion of EU energy policy, the European view of
Turkmenistan, and human rights and democracy. END SUMMARY.

ENERGY


2. (C) Although Morel's mandate includes energy from a
strategic but not commercial angle, he did not discuss this
issue during his most recent visit, even though other senior
EU officials, including Solana and Piebalgs did in recent
months, and the issue was discussed in detail when President
Berdimuhamedov visited Brussels in November. Lechervy said
all EU and EC officials use the same talking points with the
Turkmen: the need to create a positive atmosphere for
private investment, including rule of law, regulatory reform,
transparency of data and information, visa-regime reform, and
the need for intelligence services to stop surveilling and
harassing foreign business people. He said Piebalgs,
especially, has repeatedly gone into great detail explaining
how a market economy works. Lechervy added the European
perspective is always commercial, never strategic, "because
the Turkmen understand money better than anything else."


3. (C) Lechervy said Berdimuhamedov tends to be interested
and ask the right questions, but the top-down Turkmen system
is unlikely to allow any significant change in the short to
medium term because ideas do not flow to the top. Rather,
the top orders the lower levels to implement, in the shortest
possible time, vague concepts and poorly understood ideas.


4. (C) According to Lechervy, the recent EU-Turkmenistan
Memorandum of Understanding on Energy Cooperation, unlike an
earlier MOU with Kazakhstan, was meant to be educational, to
indicate to the Turkmen how far they have to go. Lechervy
posited Turkmenistani officials are constrained by their lack
of non-Soviet experience and consequent fear of "looking like
rubes," as well as by the memory of their experiences in the
early 1990s when, they are convinced, Western governments and
companies took advantage of them. Further, Lechervy claimed,
deputy prime ministers and ministers, let alone lower
officials, seldom travel abroad because the president doesn't
trust them to travel without him, and because they themselves
fear looking unsophisticated.


5. (C) Lechervy claimed Turkmenistan has locked itself into
an idiosyncratic ideology of "permanent neutrality" that
carries over into its views on energy development and export.
In practical terms, it means anyone can knock on
Turkmenistan's door and it will sell its gas at the border,
and that pipelines should lead in all directions so that one
region of the world is not favored over others. This has two
consequences. One, Turkmenistan declines to enter into
contracts for downstream investment with foreign companies,
which it views as alliances. Two, this drives Russia crazy
because it knows it is losing its monopoly on Turkmenistan's
natural gas.

HUMAN RIGHTS

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6. (C) According to Lechervy, human rights, including
freedom of movement and ICRC cooperation, is always on the EU
agenda with Turkmenistan, but the EU does not condition other
areas of engagement on human rights. At the most recent
(September) annual EU-Turkmenistan dialog on human rights,
the EU passed to the Turkmen a document listing "persons of
concern" who should be released from prison. Lechervy
characterized the document as an "outrageous embarrassment"
because it had not been properly vetted and a number of
persons on the list had been released months earlier. "This
decidedly lowers our credibility," Lechervy commented. He
blamed the faulty list on individual countries' offices of
Amnesty International that, in turn, are influenced by
Turkmen exiled in Europe who do not have current information.


7. (C) Lechervy said Morel did not raise human rights during
his December 10-11 visit, since his brief stay in
Turkmenistan was largely ceremonial. However, human rights
was the focus of another EU visitor at the same time, the
diplomatic adviser to the chairman of the European
parliament. The adviser's worst meeting was with Central
Election Commission Chairman Garryev who reportedly insisted
no reform is necessary. The Charge pointed out that a month
earlier UNDP had conducted an assessment mission for
electoral reform at the request of the Government of
Turkmenistan, and noted Turkmenistan is usually more
comfortable working with international organizations.
Lechervy sniffed he strongly doubts the UN's capacity to do
anything on this issue.

UPCOMING EU VISITS


8. (SBU) Lechervy said the EU Troika COEST plans a visit in
mid-January (representatives from Slovenia and France, as
well as an EC director-general) to enlarge the EU-Central
Asia dialog and to prepare for a higher-level Troika visit in
April. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is expected
in mid-March as part of a regional visit, including
Afghanistan, to prepare for France assuming its six-month
presidency beginning July 1.


9. (SBU) COMMENT: While Lechervy's readout is probably
mostly accurate, we sense it may have been colored by a bit
of Gallic hauteur. Turkmenistan is on a steep learning
curve, but we have seen evolution in its views in the last
six months. Change will indeed come, but we need to continue
to be patient, because it will not occur at the pace the West
desires. END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND