Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimukhammedov met with EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat on April 9, during which the two agreed to have 10 billion cubic meters of natural gas available for export to Europe by 2009. STRATFOR sources confirmed the agreement was in fact made. If Turkmenistan’s figures are accurate, and if it is serious about following through with the deal, the European Union will have good reason to be optimistic about its energy future. But these are big ifs. The deal represents a potential watershed in Europe’s attempt to diversify its sources of energy and to gain greater independence from Russian energy — which comes with political strings attached.