TURKMENISTAN: UN SRSG FOR AFGHANISTAN MEETS

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASHGABAT 000090 SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN AND SCA/RA E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/20/2020 TAGS: PGOV PREL AF UN TX SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: UN SRSG FOR AFGHANISTAN MEETS PRESIDENT REF: A. 09 ASHGABAT 1052 ¶B. 09 ASHGABAT 1574 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Sylvia Reed Curran. Reasons 1.4 (B) a nd (D). ¶1. (C) The UN Special Representative for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, met with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov on January 15 to discuss further assistance for Afghanistan, according to international newswires. Turkmen media highlighted the visit and emphasized Turkmenistan's role in providing humanitarian assistance and discounted electricity to its southern neighbor (Ref A). Asoka Rasphone, the UN Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) Liaison Officer at the UN Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy (UNRCCA) in Ashgabat told us that his impression was that Turkmenistan did not make any new assistance commitments for Afghanistan, despite the fanfare in the local press about the visit and Turkmenistan's reported cooperation with the UN to promote peace in Afghanistan. He did say that Eide,s regional trip was intended to emphasize the UNAMA mission of coordinating aid and promoting sustainable development (Ref B),and to get commitments from Central Asian governments prior to the January 28 conference in London. ¶2. (C) Rasphone noted that even though he is the UNAMA representative in Turkmenistan, he was not included in any of the planning for Eide,s trip. He said the Turkmen Government took care of all the planning, and worked directly with the UNAMA office in Kabul. Rasphone added that the extent of his participation was to be present at the airport when Eide arrived and departed. He did not receive any information subsequent to Eide,s meeting from the UNAMA offices in Kabul. Everything he knew about the substance of the meeting he learned from the international press. Rasphone did know one detail not in the press, however. The Turkmen Government reportedly accepted the London conference invitation. However, they did not reveal who will attend. (NOTE: We have known for weeks that FM Meredov told the UK that he will attend. END COMMENT.) ¶3. (C) COMMENT: Despite the Turkmen Government's frequent touting of the UNRCCA's location in Turkmenistan as a sign of the mutual respect and cooperation between the two organizations, it chose to keep UNRCCA out of the loop on Eide's visit (as well as the UN Resident Coordinator). This probably reflects the Turkmen Government's preference to control all aspects of presidential meetings. Turkmenistan prefers to provide aid to Afghanistan bilaterally (Ref A). The Turkmen Government apparently chose to limit the SRSG's visit to a conversation between leaders, which made for good publicity, but avoided overt pressure to commit to concrete deliverables. END COMMENT. CURRAN