Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 1 / Trend V. Zhavoronkova/
Russian interest to icrease its gas supplies to Asian countries including China may affect the Turkmen-Chinese economical relations, German expert on Central Asia Michael Laubsch believes.
The head of Russian Gazprom company Aleksey Miller said that the country may increase its gas exports to the Asian - Pacific region up to volumes, equal to Russian supplies to Europe.
"It is obvious that Russia is now trying to attract China for Russian energy sources with the background that with this new strategy it might also affect the Turkmen-Chinese economical relations," head of the German non-governmental organization ETG (Eurasian Transition Group) Laubsch told Trend in an e-mail.
He said that the contacts between Ashgabat and Moscow are at the moment not in the best shape, therefore it might be possible that this new strategy is also a new way of showing Turkmenistan that Russia could in theory act as a competitor to Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan is one of the largest exporters of gas in the Caspian region and at this stage has the ability to export natural gas to China, Iran and Russia.
China at the moment is one the most important gas importers from Turkmenistan.
Expert believes that such Russian decision may be followed by Ashgabat's reaction.
"Of course Turkmenistan might act in a way that it will increase the volume of gas, or reduce the price for the fuel," Laubsch said.
He believes that the country has to react to such kind of Moscow's decision.
"But in fact, China already built the pipeline, so I don't think that Beijing would be in favor of cutting all gas exports from Turkmenistan and switch over to Russia," Laubsch said.
He added that one more important point is exact numbers and price range Moscow would like to offer to China.