Turkmenistan president hints at reforms as Putin, Erdogan and others visit

ASHGABAT, Dec 12 - Turkmenistan's president hinted at possible political reforms on Friday ahead of a rare international meeting he is hosting with the attendance of counterparts from Russia, Turkey, ‍Iran ​and elsewhere.

President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, whom critics say presides over ‍an autocratic and opaque system, made the comments in state newspaper Turkmenistan Today in honour of ​the 30th ​anniversary of the former Soviet nation's declaration of neutrality.

"We are carrying out extensive work aimed at transforming our neutral country into a powerful, democratic, and rule-of-law state ‍where citizens live happy lives," Berdymukhamedov said in the article, without giving further details.

The ​article was published on the eve ⁠of a forum in the capital Ashgabat dedicated to the gas-rich Central Asian state's international neutrality. Among attendees were Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iran's Masoud Pezeshkian.

A mostly desert ​country of 7 million people with the world's fourth largest natural gas reserves, Turkmenistan declared itself officially ‌neutral in 1995 under its first president, ​Saparmurat Niyazov, who spurned both Western and Russian influence.

Until his death in 2006, Niyazov maintained tight control over politics, a policy of isolationism from the outside world, and an economy heavily based on natural gas exports.

Since succeeding his father as president in 2022, Berdymukhamedov has signalled some opening. 

Curbs on social media have been eased, and the government has ‍vowed to open new air transport links and liberalise its visa regime by ​introducing e-visas for some foreign visitors.

Turkmenistan also says it wants to join the World Trade Organisation and ​diversify the economy away from gas exports, most of ‌which are to China. 

Last month, it passed a law introducing a regulatory framework for cryptocurrency mining and trading. REUTERS