February 06, 2026
Times of Central Asia - Behind Turkmenistan’s Neutrality, Quiet U.S. Military Ties Endure
In late January, U.S. Special Envoy for South and Central Asia, Sergio Gor visited Turkmenistan. Accompanying Gor was U.S. Secretary of the Army Daniel Driscoll.
Driscoll’s presence in Turkmenistan, a country with a roughly 1,150-kilometer border with Iran, sparked some speculation that his visit was related to escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran. But while it is unusual for any top foreign military officials to visit Turkmenistan, U.S. military officials have stopped by Turkmenistan relatively often over the course of the last 30 years.
Neutral Turkmenistan
A good trivia question about Central Asia is, which country was the first to join NATO’s Partnership for Peace (PfP) program?
The answer is Turkmenistan, in May 1994, and NATO had just created the PfP program in January of that year.
Read the full article on the Times of Central Asia.
Bruce Pannier is a Senior Fellow at the Turan Research Center.