Relationship dossier
Malaysia
Turkmenistan
Relationship assessment
Economic cooperation, including Malaysian energy operations in Turkmenistan, underpins bilateral ties.
Malaysia toward Turkmenistan
+20Malaysia has pursued economic, scientific and technical cooperation with Turkmenistan through a bilateral government agreement. Malaysian company Petronas has also maintained offshore energy operations there under a production-sharing arrangement.
Turkmenistan toward Malaysia
+25Turkmenistan has provided the framework for Petronas’s offshore energy operations through production-sharing arrangements and has engaged Malaysia through a bilateral economic, scientific and technical cooperation agreement.
Overall relationship
+25The relationship has a practical cooperative foundation in bilateral economic and technical cooperation and Petronas’s sustained energy presence in Turkmenistan. The known areas of engagement are meaningful but concentrated, and the extent of broader cooperation is unclear.
How to read these scores
Scores are rough judgments, not objective measurements or current verification. Directional scores describe government policy and conduct, not public opinion. The overall score is an independent estimate, never an average.
- −100
- Extreme sustained hostility
- −50
- Substantially adversarial
- 0
- Mixed or neutral, supported by knowledge
- +50
- Substantially cooperative
- +100
- Exceptionally close sustained partnership
“Not assessed” means there is no recorded score. Pair existence makes no claim about diplomatic recognition or established relations.
Relationship context
Overview
Malaysia and Turkmenistan have pursued government-level economic and technical cooperation, including a bilateral cooperation agreement. Turkmenistan has also hosted Petronas’s long-running offshore energy operations under a production-sharing arrangement. These provide concrete foundations for cooperation, although the breadth and intensity of government engagement beyond these areas are less clear.
Key developments
Malaysia and Turkmenistan concluded a bilateral agreement on economic, scientific and technical cooperation.
Petronas began offshore operations in Turkmenistan under a production-sharing arrangement.
Major uncertainties
- The scope and implementation of bilateral economic and technical cooperation are unclear.
- The current status and extent of Petronas’s operations under Turkmenistan’s production-sharing arrangements are unclear.