The meeting of the Russian and Turkish heads of state at the SCO summit in Astana did not resolve all existing issues, but showed ‘progressive development’ of bilateral relations…

The struggle for strategic natural resources in post-Soviet Central Asia is reformatting international relations in the region and triggering confrontation between the key players. Turkey is gaining new opportunities on the global stage with the launch of energy transit routes that bypass Russia. Geo-economic and geopolitical significance of natural gas transit routes…

The security of the state includes many components with energy security playing a special role. The degree of development and security of the energy sector determines to a large extent the economic, social and defense aspects of the state. The availability of a country’s own natural energy resources (in particular, oil and gas) and technologies (green energy production, nuclear energy, processing plants) naturally creates both competitive advantages and a sufficient level of energy security and independence…

On 22-23 January 2024, Turkmen Foreign Minister R. Meredow visited Japan. During this trip, meetings were held with the Japanese Foreign Minister, the Ministers of Digital Transformation; Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Economy, Trade and Industry; representatives of Japanese business, the Director of the Foreign Trade Organisation of Japan and the Head of the Export Credit Organisation of Japan. The leitmotif of the talks was the cooperation…

Turkey, currently strengthening its position in the international arena, is seeking to bring about a multipolar world, with itself as the leader of the Turkic pole. As part of its Turan project, Ankara is now focusing its attention on the southeastern area of the post-Soviet space. Technically, it could be said that the relevant international pan-Turkic structure already exists, in the form of the Organization of Turkic States…

The visit made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Egypt in mid-February lived up to expectations and produced positive results. The visit was aimed at restoring relations between Cairo and Ankara. The aim was to bring them back to the level they were at ten years ago. After the talks, the two parties signed a joint declaration that included provisions for restructuring the high level Strategic Cooperation Council and strengthening trade and security cooperation. During the meeting, the sides also discussed cooperation in the fields of energy, tourism, culture and education…

On December 6, 2023, the Intergovernmental Turkmen-Turkish Commission on Economic Cooperation held a meeting in Ashgabat. The participants focused their attention on the prospects of Turkmen gas supplies to Turkey via Iran.  Prior to this event, Turkmenistan had expressed its intention to expand gas exports to the West during the Summit of the Organization of Turkic States, which was announced by the Chairman of the Halk Maslakhaty of the Milli Gengesh of Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who acted as an observer. Incidentally, Trans-Caspian supply routes were mentioned at that time…

According to the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES), “the prospect of the EU receiving more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Egypt in the short and medium term looks unachievable due to tight gas balances and reduced imports form Israel.” Or, to put it in less academic terms, we can say that this is clearly what Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, namely that Europe, which has followed the US line and refused to buy cheap Russian gas, has caused itself and its people lasting economic, financial and political harm. Last year, for example, Egypt shipped 80 percent…

Turkey and Iran continue to be important Middle Eastern nations. Due to their geographical proximity, imperial past, violent rivalry, theological tensions (between Sunnism and Shiism), and, of course, the continuous divergence of geopolitical interests, both nations have a rich history of relations. There were multiple Turkish-Persian clashes and wars, with various interruptions and varying degrees of success, during the Ottoman and Persian empires. Regarding the significance of the harem in the Ottoman Empire, historians have observed that…

Iran is attempting to create a gas alliance involving Qatar. While Turkey is attempting to rescue the grain deal, Iran is actively promoting the concept of establishing a gas hub of its own. The gas swap between Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan via Iran served as a test phase. Later in November 2022, Russia and Iran started researching the idea of swapping gas supplies, which initially would be around 10 billion cubic meters per year. Iran formally proposed to Russia and Turkmenistan a large-scale gas swap in February 2023, in which Russia would get gas in the north and Turkmenistan would supply it in exchange in either direction in the south. They specifically discussed deliveries of gas to Pakistan, near whose border Iran is building a gas pipeline with a capacity of 100 million m3/day of gas (about 36.5 billion m3/year), opening up the prospect of supplying India in the future.

Following the undermining of Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and 2 in the Baltic Sea by Western special services at the end of September 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at the Russian Energy Week forum in Moscow on October 12, 2022, proposed to depoliticize the issue of gas trade and create a “major gas hub” on the territory of Turkey. Moscow plans to redirect the main gas export flows through Turkey to third countries (including the EU). This topic has caught the attention of world actors and provided the same Turkey with new horizons for energy development. The Russian leader’s initiative also came as a surprise…

While European officials and individual members of the European political elite try, to the detriment of ordinary Europeans, to develop a mechanism that would allow EU members to block even Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies without imposing additional sanctions, Europe’s deepening gas and economic crisis…