[Mb-civic] The Path To Energy Security - Mikheil Saakashvili -
Washington Post Op-Ed
William Swiggard
swiggard at comcast.net
Mon Jan 9 03:54:56 PST 2006
The Path To Energy Security
By Mikheil Saakashvili
Monday, January 9, 2006; A19
TBILISI, Georgia -- Last week Russia announced that it would halt and
then -- not long after -- that it was restarting natural gas shipments
to Ukraine. It was a momentary crisis that should have wide-ranging
ramifications for the economic security of Europe and raise questions
about any notion of a role for Russia as a reliable energy supplier.
Russia's arbitrary cutoff sent a clear message to the European Union:
There can be no energy security when an undependable neighbor is willing
and able to use its energy resources as a weapon in political influence.
We in Georgia watched these events with great interest for two major
reasons. Last August, Georgia and Ukraine initiated the creation of the
Community of Democratic Choice. The CDC held its first meeting in Kiev
last month and began to mobilize democracies to work toward our common
goals. In the course of the Rose and Orange revolutions in Georgia and
Ukraine, respectively, our peoples chose to develop open, democratic
societies and set out to reorient our economic and political ties to the
West. We believe it is critical to our future safety and economic
security that we integrate ourselves with Euro-Atlantic structures,
which is why we are working to gain membership in NATO and the European
Union. We are constantly striving for good relations with our giant
neighbor, but the Russian government's recent actions are yet another
example of that country's attempts to influence nearby countries.
Because of our democratic solidarity with Ukraine, our Black Sea
neighbor, we shared the outrage expressed in Europe at Russia's
heavy-handed action.
We also expressed support for Ukraine because of our own experience.
While this was the European Union's first experience with a politically
motivated cutoff of natural gas, Russia has attempted to pressure
Georgia this way on many occasions. That is why we seek diverse sources
of energy. In the wake of these dramatic events, it is critical that the
E.U. move to diversify its energy sources and develop new transportation
routes for its supplies. The fig leaf of "market rates" that Russia
traditionally uses as cover to jack up prices or to cut off energy
supplies is disingenuous at best. There is nothing "free market" or
"market rate" behind Russian energy prices. Manipulation of energy
prices and supplies is a critical tool of those in Russia who believe
that hydrocarbons are the best means of political influence. In Georgia,
both Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two areas that are outside of our
control and whose separatist authorities are directly controlled by
Russia, receive natural gas free -- hardly a practice free-marketeers
would applaud.
Russia uses not only its energy supplies but also the vast energy
transportation network that former Soviet states inherited -- and depend
on -- to exercise energy control. For example, when Russia demanded
steep price increases in natural gas from my country, we approached
Kazakhstan and reached a preliminary agreement to purchase gas from it
at a genuine market rate. But Russia's Gazprom refused to allow shipment
through Russian territory, thereby scuttling the deal. It gets worse.
The E.U. should take note that in December 1999 Georgian natural gas
from Russia -- our sole supplier -- was cut off for no reason in the
dead of winter and was restored only through U.S. intervention.
For Georgians, our path is clear: We are moving aggressively to
diversify our energy sources and transportation networks. The recently
completed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which brings natural gas from
Azerbaijan to Turkey and crosses Georgia is a critical piece of this
effort. For Europe, the Black Sea states hold the key for new routes to
bring in energy supplies from the Middle East and Central Asia. We are
willing to work closely both with our European partners and with Russia
to make the whole system transparent, predictable and immune to -- or
insulated from -- political shocks.
The writer is president of the Republic of Georgia.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/08/AR2006010801167.html?nav=hcmodule
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20060109/2911f2e1/attachment-0001.htm
More information about the Mb-civic
mailing list