DUSHANBE, October 27, 2014, Asia-Plus — A Kyrgyz delegation was due to arrive in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, to discuss electricity exports.
Kyrgyzstan”s First Deputy Prime Minister Valery Dil will head the talks with Turkmen officials.
Water levels at Kyrgyzstan”s major reservoir are down by around 25 percent this year and the country faces an electricity deficit this winter estimated at about 2.5 billion kilowatt hours (kWh).
Kyrgyzstan recently reached an agreement to import some 1 billion kWh from neighboring Kazakhstan.
Kyrgyz Prime Minister Joomart Otorbayev announced the negotiations with Turkmenistan at an October 24 meeting of Kyrgyzstan”s state committee overseeing preparations for winter.
Otorbayev did not provide details about the route for importing Turkmen electricity or mention Uzbekistan”s inclusion as a transit country.
Uzbekistan lies between Turkmenistan and Kyrgyzstan.
Several years ago Uzbekistan cut Turkmen electricity exports across Uzbek territory to Tajikistan.
Meanwhile, Uzbek President Islam Karimov reportedly discussed gas pipelines to China, allocation of water in Central Asia, and the situation in Afghanistan during a meeting with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov in Ashgabat on October 24.
According to Radio Liberty, the two presidents discussed the four branches of a gas pipeline leading from Turkmen gas fields and transiting Uzbekistan on route to China.
Turkmen media reported President Berdymukhammedov backed rational use of water in Central Asia “based on respect for each other”s interests.”
Karimov is a fierce opponent of plans in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to build large hydropower plants that the Uzbek president fears will deprive agricultural lands in Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, of needed water, Radio Liberty said.
