TURKMENISTAN: FRENCH AMBASSADOR ON EU ENERGY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001371 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN, EEB, DRL PLEASE PASS TO USTDA DAN STEIN ENERGY FOR EKIMOFF/THOMPSON COMMERCE FOR HUEPER AID/W FOR EE/AA (WALLEN) 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 ASHGABAT 00001371 002 OF 002 ¶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