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World Bulletin / News Desk

“Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said during a visit to Turkmenistan that Russia is keen improve ties with Turkmenistan.

“Lavrov told Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov that Russia was ready to cooperate more closely with Turkmenistan in a number of areas including terrorism, drug smuggling, and organized crime, according to reports in Russian media. Plans to increase defense and security cooperation to ensure regional security was also in the pipeline.”
…

Uh, no thanks.

“During talks with his Turkmen counterpart, Lavrov said Russia was ready to help Turkmenistan patrol its southern border with Afghanistan, but he added Ashgabat does not need such assistance right now.”

(Or, We sort of remember when we were part of the USSR, and … Nah.)

http://www.worldbulletin.net/russia-to-protect-turkmenistan-afghan-border/168903/russia-to-protect-turkmenistan-afghan-border

Everybody gets in on the act.

Except the U.S., Russia and China. But you can bet all three are watching what happens on the ground, and most assuredly watching each other’s actions.

What it is: TAPI pipeline – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. (As Sesame Street might say, “Which of those is not the same as the others?”)

“Turkmenistan has earlier said it expects the gas link with an annual capacity of 33 billion cubic metres to be fully operational by the end of 2018.

“However uncertainty hangs over the project, whose cost is estimated at $10 billion (9.0 billion euros).

“Aside from the risks associated with a link traversing war-torn Afghanistan, the four-country consortium has yet to confirm the participation of a major foreign commercial partner willing to help finance TAPI.”

http://www.worldbulletin.net/haber/167329/major-south-asian-pipeline-launched