The Impact of Turkmenistan's Foreign Policy on Its Economy

The European Union’s limitations to assured and inexpensive access to energy resources, the usage of resources as political instruments by countries such as the Russian Federation has made diversification and transmission lines of energy resources the Union’s primary aim in the international policy arena. The European Union aims to access rich sources of natural gas and create new markets in accordance with its economic goal; the Southern gas corridor project is in line with this energy policy. On the other hand, Turkmenistan¢s strategy is to be transformed to a strategic actor in the energy domain. Turkmenistan¢s geographical location, its rich sources of natural gas and its strategy to diversify its energy export routes, especially in the period of the country¢s next president, paves the way for the opportunity of extensive international cooperation.
The question which is proposed in this regard is the following: what role will Turkmenistan have in the European Union’s new energy policy outlook?
Accordingly, our proposed hypothesis is that with the implementation of the southern gas corridor project, Turkmenistan will actively cooperate and compete with Russia to have a presence in the supplying of energy to the European Union.
The paper has been based on descriptive-analytic method and the interdependence theory.