BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 3. EBRD President Odile
Renaud-Basso is set to visit Turkmenistan in July. As
Turkmenistan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Rashid Meredov announced
at a Cabinet meeting on June 26, the visit will include talks on
expanding cooperation with the Bank as well as the signing of a
number of bilateral documents. According to Meredov, the sides will
discuss cooperation in energy, transport, communications,
environmental protection, small and medium-sized enterprises, and
the financial and banking sector – the very areas in which new
agreements are expected to shape the future agenda of cooperation
between Turkmenistan and the EBRD.
The visit by the EBRD President will continue the course the
Bank has been steadily pursuing in Turkmenistan over recent years.
The EBRD has operated in the country since 1992. During this
period, it has financed 88 projects worth approximately €322
million, with all current operations focused on the private sector.
According to the EBRD’s country strategy, its key priorities in
Turkmenistan remain the development of private entrepreneurship,
support for small and medium-sized enterprises, strengthening the
financial sector, facilitating foreign trade, and attracting
foreign investment.
Political dialogue between the two sides has intensified
significantly in recent months. At the end of February, during a
working visit to the United Kingdom, Turkmenistan’s Foreign
Minister Rashid Meredov held talks with EBRD President Odile
Renaud-Basso, where they discussed expanding financial and
investment cooperation, energy projects, and the Bank’s
participation in developing the East-West international transport
corridor. At that meeting, the EBRD President reaffirmed the Bank’s
interest in further expanding cooperation with Turkmenistan.
Several weeks later, on March 18, during the IFT 2026
International Investment Forum in Ashgabat, EBRD Head of Office in
Turkmenistan Eric Livny stated that the Bank was ready to deepen
cooperation through public-private partnership (PPP) mechanisms.
According to him, PPP projects make it possible to attract foreign
investment, modern technologies, and long-term financing into
infrastructure sectors, while Turkmen construction companies have
already shown interest in this format.
Cooperation received another boost in June, when Rashid Meredov
and Eric Livny once again discussed support for economic reforms,
investment promotion, and the implementation of projects in
strategically important sectors of the economy. Following the
meeting, the parties reaffirmed their mutual interest in further
developing the partnership and stressed the importance of regular
dialogue for launching new joint initiatives.
Against this backdrop, the upcoming agreements do not appear to
be a one-off initiative. Rather, they represent the logical
continuation of a consistent policy of expanding cooperation that
both sides have been building over recent months, gradually moving
from discussions on individual areas toward preparing a
comprehensive package of new agreements.
At the same time, the upcoming agreements reflect not only the
EBRD’s growing interest in Turkmenistan but also the changes taking
place within the Turkmen economy itself. As Trend noted in its
earlier analytical article, Inside Turkmenistan’s
investment cycle: How Turkish contractors anchor a new phase of
economic expansion, the country has effectively entered a new
investment cycle over recent months, steadily expanding the sectors
that will subsequently require substantial financing, advanced
technologies, and supporting infrastructure.
The energy sector provides perhaps the clearest example. On
April 17, Turkmenistan launched the fourth phase of development of
its giant Galkynysh gas field together with China’s state-owned
CNPC. In June, state concern Hazarnebit and Malaysia’s PETRONAS
signed a new production sharing agreement covering offshore Blocks
19 and 20 in the Turkmen sector of the Caspian Sea. At the same
time, the country continues to develop its petrochemical industry,
transport infrastructure, and export-oriented manufacturing in line
with Turkmenistan’s Socio-Economic Development Program and
Investment Program for 2026-2028.
It was against this backdrop that Turkmen President Serdar
Berdimuhamedov paid a state visit to Azerbaijan on July 22-23,
during which the two sides agreed to expand cooperation in energy,
transport, industry, and maritime logistics. In essence, the
agreements point to the emergence of a new external economic
architecture in which Azerbaijan is becoming Turkmenistan’s key
gateway to international markets across the Caspian Sea and onward
toward Europe. Trend examined these developments in greater detail
in its analytical article Energy, transport,
industry: what stands behind Turkmenistan President’s visit to
Azerbaijan.
Thus, the upcoming agreements with the EBRD come at a time when
Turkmenistan is already creating new sources of economic growth
while simultaneously developing the infrastructure needed to
integrate them into international supply chains. This means that
the country’s primary need is no longer the launch of individual
projects but rather the financial and institutional support
required for a new stage of economic development.
Yet there is another element in the story of the forthcoming
agreements between the EBRD and Turkmenistan that, at first glance,
appears to be an ordinary personnel decision but in reality may
reveal much about the Bank’s future plans in the country. On
September 1, 2026, Nodira Mansurova will assume the position of
EBRD Regional Director for Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan
after serving as the Bank’s Head of Office in Tunisia since 2021.
It will be she who oversees the implementation of the agreements
reached only a few weeks before taking up her new position.
Mansurova’s professional background itself offers clues as to
the direction in which the EBRD intends to develop cooperation with
Ashgabat. During her tenure in Tunisia, the Bank focused on
projects combining government priorities with private capital,
including transport and energy infrastructure, support for small
and medium-sized businesses, industrial modernization, renewable
energy financing, and improvements to the investment climate.
Importantly, this was not the application of a standard EBRD model
but rather its adaptation to Tunisia’s specific needs, with the
Bank working simultaneously alongside government institutions,
international financial organizations, and private investors.
Particularly noteworthy is her experience in building
multi-source financing mechanisms. Under Mansurova’s leadership,
the EBRD actively implemented projects together with the European
Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Union, using co-financing
arrangements, grant support, and risk-sharing instruments to
attract private investment. This approach enabled the
implementation of several major infrastructure and energy projects
that would have been considerably more difficult to finance through
a single institution alone.
That experience appears especially relevant for Turkmenistan. In
May 2026, an EIB representative told Trend in an exclusive
interview that transport connectivity, sustainable infrastructure,
private sector support, and green finance projects were among the
Bank’s priority areas for potential cooperation with Turkmenistan.
These priorities closely match both the agenda of the upcoming
EBRD-Turkmenistan negotiations and the sectors identified by the
Turkmen government as priorities under its 2026-2028 economic
development and investment program.
Against this backdrop, the convergence of several factors – the
July visit by the EBRD President, preparation of a new package of
agreements, the appointment of a new Regional Director, and
Turkmenistan’s current stage of economic development – is difficult
to dismiss as coincidence. Rather, it suggests that the Bank is
moving beyond isolated projects toward a more comprehensive model
of cooperation, one centered on long-term investment programs
requiring continuous coordination among the government,
international financial institutions, and the private sector. This
is precisely the model that Nodira Mansurova demonstrated during
her tenure in Tunisia.
Taken together, the July visit by the EBRD President to
Ashgabat, the preparation of a new package of agreements, and the
forthcoming leadership transition at the Bank’s regional office
appear not as separate events but as elements of a single process.
Over recent months, Turkmenistan has significantly accelerated
development in areas traditionally prioritized by international
financial institutions: energy, transport infrastructure, industry,
and the expansion of external economic ties. These are precisely
the sectors previously identified by the Turkmen side as the key
topics for the upcoming negotiations with the EBRD.
In this context, the appointment of a new Regional Director
becomes more than a routine personnel decision; it serves as an
indicator of the next stage of cooperation. Nodira Mansurova’s
experience suggests that the EBRD is betting not on one-off
investments but on the long-term implementation of projects
bringing together the government, international financial
institutions, and private business. Should the July negotiations
conclude with the anticipated agreements, this model of cooperation
is likely to become the foundation of the Bank’s next phase of
partnership with Turkmenistan.
