Turkmenistan's Positive Neutrality and Its Bilateral Relations

Special Focus on India

Abstract

Turkmenistan is a Central Asian country that largely depends upon agriculture and is enriched with natural resources like natural gas, petroleum, salt, and sulphur. The country has the sixth-largest natural gas reserves. Since its independence in 1991, the country follows a ‘positive neutrality' policy to avoid external interference in its domestic affairs. The country always acts as a mediator to maintain peace and stability. During the period of Niyazov, he used this neutrality policy to enforce his control over the country and isolate the country from the rest of the world. With the entry of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow into power in 2006, he tried to liberalize the economy as well as maintain the neutrality policy. So the ‘positive neutrality' adopted by Turkmenistan has had a different impact on its economy during different periods. Along with the isolationist policy, on one hand, Turkmenistan also emphasizes maintaining bilateral relations with other countries. This study is an attempt to analyze Turkmenistan's ‘positive neutrality' policy and its bilateral relations with the other countries with a special focus on India.

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4318638