TURKMENISTAN: U/S BURNS MEETS FM MEREDOV

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000899

SIPDIS

SCA/CEN; EEB
ENERGY FOR EKIMOFF/THOMPSON
COMMERCE FOR HUEPER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2019
TAGS: PREL PHUM ENRG ECON TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: U/S BURNS MEETS FM MEREDOV

REF: ASHGABAT 0888

Classified By: Charge Richard Miles for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) SUMMARY: Under Secretary for Political Affairs Bill
Burns and a delegation of senior U.S. officials met with
Deputy Chairman and Foreign Minister Meredov on July 11 for a
productive discussion of bilateral and regional issues.
Meredov welcomed further exploration of a bilateral mechanism
that would help structure and regularize high-level
engagement, and he offered thoughts (though no new movement)
on U.S.-Turkmen cooperation on Afghanistan. Though Meredov
made clear Turkmenistan would mind its preference for
neutrality in approaches to Iran and Afghanistan, he
confirmed his government,s intention to continue and
potentially to expand cooperation directly with Kabul.


2. (C) (Summary Cont,d) More broadly, Meredov said
Turkmenistan was ready to cooperate further with the United
States on political issues, energy, security, human rights
and humanitarian issues on an equal basis, and the near term
establishment of an intergovernmental commission would be a
priority. Meredov was clearly energized by his late June
2009 Washington meetings. NSC Senior Director Michael
McFaul, A/S for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert Blake,
and DASD for East and South Asian Affairs David Sedney
participated from the U.S. side, while DFMs Hajiyev and
Komekov joined Meredov across the table. END SUMMARY.

NEW CHAPTER IN BILATERAL RELATIONS


3. (C) Meredov began by expressing appreciation for his
June 23-25 visit to Washington, noting his meetings were
substantive and useful. He expressed strong support for the
bilateral agenda that emerged from those meetings. "We
welcome the initiative raised in Washington," he said,
recommending that it be realized through the formation of a
new bilateral, intergovernmental comission tasked with
fostering cooperation. Burns proposed that annual
consultative meetings be organized in the two capitals, and
that the resulting discussions focus on five main baskets of
issues: political matters; bilateral security, to include
counternarcotics, counterterrorism and military issues;
energy; investment and other economic or trade issues; and
the human dimension, to encompass democracy, human rights,
humanitarian topics, education and culture.


4. (C) A/S Blake added that the U.S. side would send papers
to the Turkmen government with specific suggested topics for
consideration. Meredov welcomed our breakdown of issues and
added that other topics could be included as well. He
suggested that the two parties sign an official joint
protocol or exchange papers to formalize the initiative. He
noted President Berdimuhammedov's desire to move the process
forward quickly.

PRESIDENT OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY


4. (C) Senior Director McFaul briefed Meredov on President
Obama's recent trip to Moscow and encouraged the group to
review President Obama,s speech at the New School; the
address had made clear, McFaul noted, that U.S. foreign
policy would be driven by a clear-eyed assessment of American
national interests. We shared a broad array of common
interests with Turkmenistan, including stability in
Afghanistan and the development of stronger ties between our
civil societies. Burns underscored that the U.S. and Russia
had achieved important progress; and while Moscow and
Washington would not agree on every issue ) Georgia, for
instance, was an area of sharp disagreement ) we would seek
to bridge gaps on some matters while making progress on
others: a post-START treaty and cooperation in Afghanistan.

ASHGABAT 00000899 002 OF 003


Meredov welcomed the &reset8 in U.S.-Russian relations and
said it would widen the space available to Central Asian
states to forge borader and more reliable partnerships with
the United States.

AFGHANISTAN


5. (C) Meredov said that Turkmen-Afghan cooperation was
strong and included significant humanitarian assistance in
the form of food, fuel and clothing donations as well as
construction of provincial schools and medical centers.
Infrastructure development in Afghanistan, Meredov said, was
a key area for cooperation. Since 2001, Turkmenistan had
built two new electricity lines across the border into
Afghanistan and was prepared to construct two more. Meredov
mentioned a rail line project that would stretch from
southeastern Turkmenistan into northern Afghanistan and
facilitate other development. President Berdimuhammedov
discussed it with President Karzai during their last meeting.



7. (C) The Foreign Minister opined that the political
sphere was the most important in Afghanistan. Some countries
operating there simply had negative agendas. Meredov noted
President Berdimuhammedov's view that the UN Center for
Preventive Diplomacy was the best mechanism for resolving
regional issues. While Turkmenistan respected international
efforts to gather relevant players together to discuss
Afghanistan, Berdimuhamedov viewed the UN Center as a more
relevant tool to achieve progress, because it could bring
together foreign ministers to discuss the issues and
formulate practical approaches. He added that the situation
on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border should also be discussed.


8. (C) On the question of negotiating with the Taliban,
Meredov noted that one could not be &a little bit
pregnant,8 i.e., all Taliban were bad Taliban. All the
same, neutral Turkmenistan would be ready to assist if asked.
In the 1990s, Turkmenistan hosted talks organized by the UN
that brought together the Northern Alliance and the Taliban,
and had also hosted three rounds of peace talks between the
warring parties of Tajikistan in the late 1990s, he said.

IRAN


9. (C) The Foreign Minister described Turkmenistan's
relations with Iran as neighborly, and said that in 18 years
of bilateral cooperation, Iran had never interfered in
Turkmenistan's internal affairs. He argued that
international bodies and the UN should handle issues related
to Iran. For its part, Turkmenistan adhered to the
international non-proliferation regimes to which it was a
party, joined President Bush's non-proliferation security
initiative, and denied flight clearance to suspicious
overflights.

HUMAN DIMENSION


10. (C) Burns noted that the United States was prepared to
broaden its education programs in Turkmenistan, and Meredov
said he welcomed the offer. Regarding human rights, Burns
encouraged the Turkmen side to take further steps to advance
human rights, underscoring the importance of being able to
show U.S. legislators and interest groups concrete progress,
especially as the two countries build on and expand the
relationship. Meredov said that all areas of bilateral
cooperation would develop on an equal basis, be it energy or
human rights. Meredov described democratization as a process
as well, marked by step-by-step development. He said the two
countries needed to both hear and listen to each other for
the process to advance.


ASHGABAT 00000899 003 OF 003


TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS


11. (C) Assistant Secretary Blake reminded the group,
during an interjection, of the importance the United States
places on Trafficking in Persons issues. Congressional
requirements demanded a pro-active demonstration of progress
according to certain metrics; we looked forward to working
with Turkmenistan on these issues. Meredov said that
Turkmenistan was only beginning to address the issue, in
comparison to "certain high-risk countries." He added that
Turkmenistan was ready to cooperate on TIP, and asked that
U.S. officials provide concrete proposals to help address
shortcomings.

12 . (C) U/S Burns cleared this cable.
MILES