brzezinski referred to the turkmenistan deal. the turkmenistan deal is for a shorter period of time but provides for $40 billion -- 40 billion cubic meters of gas per year at its maximum level. and there's a possibility that will rise to 70 billion cubic meters per year. so once again -- and australia is becoming an important potential supplier of lng to china. and somewhere around 2020 it's possible the u.s. fracced gas will become available for export to asia, and that will also affect the considerations. so if you look at this particular deal in the context of this broader picture, you realize that it's an important arrangement but it's by no means one that ties the two countries together in a highly dependent relationship over a long period of time in the sense that one country could exert influence over the other by diddling with the supply of gas as russia has done with the ukraine. china is not prepared to put itself subject to that type of leveraging, and i don't think that russia has gained that potential in this particu

it's a cushy gig if you manage to avoid being posted to turkmenistan.file ambassadorships often go to members of the donor class. 52 times the obama administration has chosen a bundler to become an ambassador. rarely have they backfired like the white house's pick to represent the united states in the norway. george sun nis. while sunis clearly passed the test for money marketing on obama's behalf, he showed up to his congressional hearing without studying. norway has a king and a prime minister. >> as ambassador, how would you promote those trade cooperations. >> thank you for that save, senator johnson. >> that's republican senator ron johnson offering the proverbial softball to tsunis. even democrats such as al franken don't want tsunis to represent in oslo. >> you seem very, very ill prepared and also seem to kind of melt down a little bit. and i think what you want from a diplomat is someone who is good under pressure. >> franken and fellow minnesotan democrat amy klobuchar say norwegians take up barrage and voted to vote against the nomination. br

the chinese already have a far ranging long-term agreement with turkmenistan which can grow in size and they certainly want to preserve it.

designated as countries of particular concern are egypt, iraq, nigeria, pakistan, syria, tajik ten, turkmenistan vietnam. we list pakistan at the very top of our list of offending nations which have not yet been designated as countries of particular concern. if there's one country at the top of the list that should be so designated as i've recently testified that is pakistan because the horrific abuses that take place there including abuses again against the baha'i community. the last designations by the state department were in 2011. i believe. we strongly advocate annual designations, if annual designations aren't meat they become in the words of my colleague, the vice chairman of our commission, katrina, sweat the daughter of tom lantos, the human rights activity and congre congressman. she says they become part of the wallpaper and nobody notices them anymore. we're pressing our leadership. whether it's republican administration or democratic administration -- >> thank you. >> we want them to make these designations on an annual basis. now, as far as why -- >> i'm going to just stop you a se