Energy Diplomacy of Turkmenistan: Determining Factors and Legal Framework
Authors: Surkhayeva Ya. J. 
Published: October 2024

Introduction. Energy diplomacy is an effective means of ensuring energy security (international and national) and, at the same time, an instrument for implementing the foreign energy policy of states. Since energy diplomacy is formed and implemented in the conditions of the state legal and international legal environment, the study of its legal component acquires not only theoretical, but also important practical significance. At the same time, the legal aspects of energy diplomacy (both in general and in relation to specific countries) have not yet been systematically developed in the legal literature, including in the science of international law. Based on the analysis of scientific and regulatory material, the article identifies the features of Turkmenistan's energy diplomacy and its legal support.

Materials and methods. Within the framework of the study, the sources of international law related to the topic under consideration, political and legal policy documents and acts of national legislation of Turkmenistan are considered. The theoretical basis of the research was the scientific works of experts in the field of international law and energy law, as well as individual studies of the problem of energy diplomacy, including in relation to a chosen country. The methodological basis of the study was presented by general scientific and special legal methods.

The results of the study. Factors of a resource-geographical nature, combined with factors of a political and legal nature (the status of Turkmenistan as a permanently neutral state) determine the originality of foreign energy policy and, significant from the point of view of international law, the features of Turkmenistan's energy diplomacy. The main strategic priority of Turkmenistan's energy diplomacy is to increase the export potential of oil and gas products and, in this regard, to create an extensive, modern and efficient infrastructure for transit and delivery of energy resources to foreign energy markets, comprehensive legal support for these processes. Reliance on the potential of multilateral diplomacy (primarily in the UN system) for the international legal legitimization of their national interests in the energy sector is combined with the development of bilateral international legal relations of energy cooperation on terms of mutual benefit, while respecting the basic principles of international law. The head of state plays a special role in the development and legal formalization of Turkmenistan's energy diplomacy. Embargoes, as well as unilateral restrictive measures, used in the practice of a number of States and individual integration associations, are not used as a means of economic pressure on other States. Special importance is attached to preventive diplomacy within the framework of the Central Asian region.

Discussion and conclusion. Turkmenistan's energy diplomacy, being the main means of implementing its foreign energy policy, has an international and constitutional legal framework, in turn, including: the UN Charter and other fundamental international legal acts establishing the basic principles of international law and the provisions of the Constitution of Turkmenistan on adherence to these principles, taking into account its permanently neutral status; Resolutions The UN General Assembly and acts of the constitutional legislation of Turkmenistan relating to the legal formalization and implementation of its permanent neutral status; norms of international law and provisions of the constitutional legislation of Turkmenistan regulating the main forms of diplomatic activity; special principles of international energy law correlating with the norms of the constitutional law of Turkmenistan.