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PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
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DE RUEHAH #0155/01 0301401
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 301401Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2234
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA PRIORITY 4770
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 2562
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2427
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL PRIORITY 3016
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0944
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
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RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
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RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASHGABAT 000155 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
SCA/CEN; EEB 
PLEASE PASS TO USTDA DAN STEIN 
ENERGY FOR EKIMOFF/THOMPSON 
COMMERCE FOR HUEPER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ENRG UN TX
SUBJECT: TURKMENISTAN: UN PREVENTIVE DIPLOMACY CENTER 
FINDING ITS NICHE IN PROMOTING REGIONAL COOPERATION 
 
REF: 08 ASHGABAT 1229 
 
¶1.  (SBU)  SUMMARY:   Although it has experienced its share 
of growing pains, the Ashgabat-based UN Preventive Diplomacy 
Center is playing an increasing role in promoting regional 
cooperation on a variety of issues shared by all the Central 
Asian states.  Its director has made huge strides in getting 
the Center's programs off the ground, and they appear to be 
finding resonance with regional leaders.  Afghanistan has 
also become a focal point for some of the Center's programs. 
A series of conferences and seminars will put the region's 
challenges into clearer perspective and advance the cause of 
greater regional cooperation.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  On January 27, the Charge called on the UN 
Preventive Diplomacy Center's director, Ambassador Miroslav 
Jenca, to learn more about the Center's ongoing efforts to 
advance regional cooperation.  The Center is currently 
focused on organizing projects and programs to address some 
of the most significant problems that face the Central Asian 
states, including narco-trafficking, religious extremism, 
terrorism, arms proliferation, spillover from Afghanistan, 
and competition for water resources.  Amb. Jenca also noted 
that energy security is becoming an element of the Center's 
work. 
 
CENTER'S MANDATE INCLUDES COOPERATION WITH AFGHANISTAN 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Jenca said that issues relating to Afghanistan 
have occupied much of the Center's time.  His staff is 
working on a broad program focused on Afghanistan and the 
role that Central Asian states can play to promote stability 
there.  Regional neighbors have much they can potentially 
contribute to this goal, including construction, energy 
partnerships, and infrastructure development.  Jenca noted 
that the Russian Government has proposed a foreign ministers' 
conference in Moscow on promoting stability in Afghanistan. 
Even Uzbekistan, which in the past has been reluctant to 
discuss Afghanistan, may participate.  Jenca said that even 
though such conferences focus largely on Central Asia and 
Afghanistan, it is critical to include other regional 
players, particularly Iran and Pakistan, in order to get the 
full range of perspectives. 
 
UZBEK-TAJIK DISPUTES POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Jenca plans to travel to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan 
soon to discuss intergovernmental water agreements.  He 
expressed certainty that the ongoing impasse between 
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan regarding the transit of Turkmen 
electricity to Tajikistan was closely connected to festering 
disputes between the two countries on water.  He opined that 
the dispute had the potential to become "dangerous for the 
region."  Jenca said that during Russian President Medvedev's 
recent visit to Uzbekistan, President Karimov had asked 
Medvedev to be "more assertive" in encouraging the Tajiks and 
Kyrgyz to be more cooperative on water issues.  The 
Ambassador suggested that perhaps some aspects of the October 
2008 Bishkek water agreement were not being implemented. 
Turkmen President Berdimuhamedov's upcoming official visit to 
Tashkent, Jenca said, might also include talks on water 
issues. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  The Center has a seminar planned for March 11-12, 
to which will be invited regional experts on regional 
cooperation with Afghanistan.  The Preventive Diplomacy 
Center is also organizing a larger regional conference, the 
 
ASHGABAT 00000155  002 OF 002 
 
 
theme of which will be "Global Challenges for Central Asia 
Now and in the Next 15 Years."  The conference will include 
in-depth sessions on regional threats, Afghanistan, the 
global economic crisis, energy, pipeline security, and water. 
 The Center would like to invite the well-established 
academics who work in think tanks that are subordinate to the 
presidents in each of the Central Asian countries, he said. 
Turkmenistan, however, has no such entity, and the Center has 
had difficulty identifying Turkmen participants. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  The Center has also been working to facilitate a 
pipeline security conference that the Turkmen government will 
sponsor on April 23-24.  The conference will be based on the 
principles laid out in the Turkmen-originated UN Resolution 
on ensuring the reliable and stable transit of energy. 
Turkmen officials want high-level participation in the 
conference and are hoping that agreements can be signed as a 
result of it, Jenca said.  As an aside, Jenca commented that 
when the Turkmen proposal was discussed in the UN General 
Assembly in 2008, it centered on "pipeline security."  He 
claimed that when Russian and other country representatives 
objected to the term in early drafts, the phrase "...Reliable 
and Stable Transit of Energy and its Role in Sustainable 
Development..." became the new wording. 
 
LIMITED BUDGET CONSTRAINS CENTER'S EFFORTS 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Turning to the Center's own operations, Jenca 
noted that one of his biggest challenges is the Center's very 
small budget.  While the Center has sufficient funds to run 
the office and hold modest seminars, the staff has to 
regularly petition UN headquarters for additional funds to do 
anything more ambitious.  Jenca noted that one of his 
ambitions was to improve the Center's capacity to do regional 
political analysis.  He had recently proposed establishing a 
local staff representative in each of the other four Central 
Asian countries, to get a better sense of developments, but 
UNDP representatives had not been supportive of the idea 
because of its perceived political nature.  Jenca said he is 
now planning a trip to Tehran in order to open up a dialogue 
with the Iranians.  He said he has found it useful to 
maintain close contact with the governments of Turkey, 
Azerbaijan, the United States, and the European Union, and 
Iran should be part of that equation as well. 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  When the conversation turned to the issue of 
extremism, Jenca said that during a recent meeting, Deputy 
Chairman for Foreign Affairs Meredov refused to talk with him 
about the September 2008 events in Khitrovka (ref).  Jenca 
was skeptical of the Turkmenistan government's claim that the 
shootout was the result of an attempted drug bust.  He noted 
the lack of information that would point to a drug 
connection.  He also found it interesting that when President 
Berdimuhamedov convened the last session of the Peoples' 
Council in late September 2008, religious leaders, including 
some from Afghanistan, had been invited to attend. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  COMMENT:  Jenca's description of the expanding 
work and operational growing pains of the Center show that it 
is increasingly finding its niche serving the interests of 
development and cooperation in the region.  The Center's 
growing reputation as an effective institution that will 
advance the cause of regional cooperation, and Central Asian 
leaders' interest in working with it, indicates that it could 
become a key partner in promoting regional initiatives.  END 
NOTE. 
MILES