Obama Must Approach Turkmenistan and Belarus

Dmitry Sidorov, Kommersant Publishing | July 2, 2009

In times of international competition for energy resources and strategic partners, the US must move more quickly to embrace a relationship with Turkmenistan and Belarus. ++ China is constructing a gas pipeline to Turkmenistan. ++ Moscow aims to include Belarus in a military pact. ++ "The longer the West stays on the sidelines [...] the harder it will be to achieve anything in the region." ++ Obama has to learn to manage "the vagaries of geopolitical push-and-pull" and grasp the opportunity of collaboration with the countries' leaders.