VISIT OF GENERAL PETRAEUS TO TURKMENISTAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 001058

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/17/2019
TAGS: MARR PREL TX
SUBJECT: VISIT OF GENERAL PETRAEUS TO TURKMENISTAN

Classified By: Charge Richard Miles, Reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) SUMMARY. On August 15, CENTCOM Commander General
Petraeus visited Ashgabat for meetings with Turkmen
government officials. The General met with the Minister of
Defense, the Chief of the State Border Service, and the
Deputy Chairman for Foreign Relations and Foreign Minister.
Discussions covered the usual overflight issue, Northern
Distribution Network (NDN),and updates to the Turkmen on the
situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The meetings were
cordial, and fairly positive in tone. END SUMMARY.

MINISTRY OF DEFENSE


2. (C) General Petraeus met with Minister of Defense Colonel
Yaylym Berdiyev. This was Berdiyev,s first meeting with
Petraeus, since he was named Minister of Defense shortly
after Petraeus, previous visit. Berdiyev stuck close to his
talking points, in which he praised the level of U.S.-Turkmen
cooperation. He reiterated support for the CENTCOM funded
border posts, the third of which will open next month.
Berdiyev spoke favorably about the military to military
contact plan as an excellent vehicle for U.S.-Turkmen
cooperation.


3. (C) In addition to providing an update on the situation in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, General Petraeus extended an
invitation for Turkmenistan to send a representative to Tampa
as a CENTCOM liaison officer. This officer would have direct
access to current information on Afghanistan, better direct
interface between the Turkmen MOD and CENTCOM, and exposure
to officers from dozens of other countries. The General also
extended an invitation for participation in the CENTCOM
Commander,s fellowship at the George C. Marshall Center, a
six month or one year program for a Turkmen officer. Both
the liaison officer and fellowship opportunity would provide
Turkmen officers the chance to work with officers from the
U.S. and other countries, and would make such Turkmen
officers an asset to the Turkmen military. The General also
offered to assist in training special operations forces.
Berdiyev did not respond to these offers directly, but said
that based on the success of our partnership on new border
crossing points, they will consider General Petraeus
proposals. Berdiyev also provided no response when General
Petraeus suggested the possibility of future Turkmen policy
changes in permitting nonlethals to cross Turkmenistan to
Turkey as part of NDN.

STATE BORDER SERVICE


4. (C) At his meeting with General Petraeus, Chairman Myrat
Islamov of the State Border Service (SBS) praised the U.S.
constructed border posts, as well as the good relations
between the SBS and the U.S. Embassy. They discussed the
security situation in Afghanistan, an area of obvious
interest to Islamov who is responsible for securing the
Turkmen-Afghan border. Islamov assured General Petraeus that
the Turkmen border is secure, and reminded the General that
Turkmenistan is not a transit country for narcotics.
(Comment: This is a steady refrain from Turkmen officials,
unlikely as it might be. End Comment.) Interestingly,
though, when General Petraeus mentioned that U.S. forces in
Afghanistan were more than doubling in number this year,
Islamov commented favorably, saying it was good news and made
their job easier. Islamov also passed on that President
Berdimuhamedov was very interested in strengthening the
Turkmen border, referring to his attendance at the recent
opening of a border post in celebration of the day dedicated
to Turkmen Border Forces, August 11th. The General offered
to assist the SBS with training of a special operations
capability, citing the possibility that Turkmenistan would
have to defend its borders against terrorism, extremism, and
narcotics.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS


ASHGABAT 00001058 002 OF 002



5. (C) The last meeting of the short visit was with Deputy
Chairman for Foreign Relations and Foreign Minister Rashid
Meredov. As in the previous meetings, the General made his
pitch for the CENTCOM Liaison Officer idea plus the CENTCOM
Marshall Center fellowships. Petraeus touched on the need
for more flights under the annual agreement and made the
expected request for NDN -- getting no response on the former
and the expected response on the latter. The General
suggested that he could send a local procurement team to
Turkmenistan to see what construction materials and other
goods and supplies might be sourced in Turkmenistan and
shipped to Afghanistan directly -- sort of a mini-NDN.
Meredov did not respond to that idea. General Petraeus let
Meredov know that the U.S. was working on sending the radios
requested as part of the ongoing overflight discussions.
(Comment: Turkmen Civil Aviation officials requested several
radios as part of the discussions on overflight limits and
the bill for AIR navigation presented in January. End
Comment.)


6. (C) In the Embassy briefing for the General, Charge
described the work we are doing to set up a forum for
bilateral discussion of the various issues on the agenda,
including security issues. Charge informed the General that
we had not thought through what might be included under
security issues and that we needed to stay in touch with
CENTCOM as our ideas developed. The General agreed that we
needed to do that.


7. (C) COMMENT: While there were no breakthroughs on the
Northern Distribution Network or on overflight resolution,
frankly none were expected during this visit. The Defense
Attache will follow up on the opportunities for Turkmen
participation on the CENTCOM fellowship and the liaison
officer to CENTCOM headquarters in Tampa. While nothing much
new came from the visit, it did serve to maintain the
military to military relationship, and keep open lines of
communication on topics such as overflight and U.S. efforts
to convince Turkmenistan to participate in the Northern
Distribution Network. The atmospherics in all meetings were
friendly and positive, although -- no surprise here --
lacking in substantive response from the Turkmen side. END
COMMENT.


8. (U) CENTCOM has cleared this message.
MILES