On 1–2 October 2026, the Turkmen Investment Forum TIF 2026 took place in Ashgabat — with more than 850 participants from around 50 countries, including Mitsubishi, Siemens Energy, TotalEnergies, the World Bank and the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development). EU Ambassador Luc Devigne announced that the Union was ready to provide investment support for the modernisation of Turkmen railways.
The EU is Turkmenistan's fourth-largest trading partner, with trade of EUR 1.4 billion (approximately USD 1.6 billion). Brussels' priority is the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor (a route from Central Asia to Europe across the Caspian Sea, bypassing Russia), as well as solar and wind energy.
An important detail: agreements signed at the forum included a 2026–2036 partnership with the Netherlands' Damen in shipbuilding and railway agreements with China's CSCEC, but no amounts were disclosed. The forum is more about starting negotiations than closing transactions, and Ashgabat's official statistics are not independently verified.
Sources: Turkmenistan.gov.tm, 1 October 2026; Trend.az, 1 October 2026; News Central Asia, 2 October 2026.