[Mb-civic] The Path To Energy Security - Mikheil Saakashvili - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

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