The U.S. is committed to the energy security of Europe, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday, and laid out his country's vision to enhance European energy supply security.
'The U.S. remains, as always, strongly committed to European energy security,' he said, speaking at the seventh annual Atlantic Council's Energy and Economic Summit in Istanbul.
'That's why our special envoy and coordinator for International Energy Affairs [Amos Hochstein] at the U.S. Department of State continues to engage relentlessly with our colleagues in the European Commission and member states to help implement the European Energy Union strategy,' he added.
Blinken stressed that Europe does not need more natural gas pipelines, which redirect same Russian gas supplies through different routes to the same European customers. He emphasized that Europe needs improved interconnections and strategic LNG infrastructure instead.
'Thanks to technological advances, democratization of supply sources, and new infrastructure projects, Europe is on track to greater security with a more transparent integrated and stable energy market,' he said.
Reminding that the Baltic countries were entirely dependent on a single source for all of their national gas needs, Blinken said 'Now, they are on track to be one of the most integrated energy regions by the end of this decade.'
He continued to explain other infrastructure projects to guarantee the region's energy security.
'The Estonian-Finnish undersea electricity cable is completed. A new floating LNG facility in Lithuania is in place, aptly called 'Independence.' Today, Lithuania and Estonia received gas from this LNG terminal and Latvia is making legislative reforms so those two [countries] receive alternative supplies and be a critical storage hub for the region. A planned gas interconnector with Poland, potential gas interconnectors with Finland, Poland and Estonia, and the opening of power interconnections with Sweden and Poland make the Baltics far less dependent on any single source and far more secure than ever before. Now, we need to take this same approach with a number of other strategically located projects, including building floating LNG terminals in Croatia and Greece, and completing the Greece-Bulgaria interconnector,' he explained.
Blinken also talked about the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC), of which Turkey is a part of and that will begin to carry gas from Azerbaijan to Europe via Turkey in 2018, and will continue to provide additional gas supplies in the next decade.
'The opening of the SGC will change the energy map of the continent by building the links needed to deliver Caspian gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, energizing growth all along, while enhancing Europe's energy security,' he said.
- 'Russia to play by the rules'
Blinken said those projects do not intend to alienate Russia from the European energy market, as long as Moscow abides by the rules.
'This is not a strategy designed to eliminate Russian gas from the European market. Russia will, and should, remain a major player so long it plays by the rules,' he explained.
Reminding that Russia halted its gas flows through Ukraine in the winter of 2005 and 2009, he said 'We have seen how energy resources can be wielded as a weapon of repression, as tools to finance radical ideologies or territorial expansion.'
Blinken warned 'No nation should use energy as a political weapon, to target citizens and undermine their aspirations, just as no nation should be allowed to impose its will by force on another.'
The deputy state secretary highlighted that the U.S. remains united with the EU, and its member countries, in its support to Ukraine, for its sovereignty, territorial integrity and energy security.
- Mediterranean energy outlook
Blinken also pointed out to eastern Mediterranean as a good example in energy cooperation.
'There is no better example in the eastern Mediterranean, which has become one of the brightest lights in the geopolitics of energy,' he said.
'For the first time in histories of their countries, Jordan and Israel have begun to work together on the construction for a gas pipeline from Israel to Jordan. And, recent discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean are waking Cypriots to the value of coming together to unlock the island's economic potential as a critical transit hub for energy flows across the eastern Mediterranean into Europe,' he added.
By Ovunc Kutlu
Anadolu Agency
ovunc.kutlu@aa.com.tr