VS steunt streven EU naar veiligstellen energievoorziening door betere relaties met Oost-Europese landen (en)

EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS – The Obama administration backs the EU's newest policy towards its eastern neighbours, especially the bloc's the bid to reduce its energy dependency on Russia, a US diplomat told EUobserver.

„The Eastern Partnership is a positive sign that things are moving finally in the right direction," deputy assistant secretary of state Matt Bryza said in a phone interview. He added he was pleased to see that EU energy policy moving more quickly towards diversification of natural gas supplies.

„Of course, there's still a strong debate going on in Brussels and some of the larger member states capitals about how to manage a deep dependence and relationship with Russia on gas with the need to diversify. Europe isn't quite yet at a common external energy policy, but Russia's actions this winter helped to accelerate Europe moving in that direction," Mr Bryza said, referring to Gazprom's decision to cut of gas flows to Ukraine and eastern European countries in January.

„Our European allies can choose their own energy policies, but I think they are moving in the right direction and I see positive signs in terms of the strong outreach to Azerbaijan now, as we witnessed at the Budapest Nabucco summit in January. Also, we see real progress in the development of pipelines in Europe, whether they be larger projects, like Turkey-Greece-Italy project or Nabucco, or smaller ones, like the interconnections of various European gas transmission and distribution systems. There is an exhilaration of efforts to develop these sorts of projects," the US diplomat noted.

Both US president Barack Obama i and secretary of state Hillary Clinton i praised the "project of the Eastern Partnership" during an informal EU-US summit in Prague on Sunday, Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said on Monday.

A Polish-Swedish initiative, the Eastern Partnership aims at improving the EU's political, economic and energy relations with Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia.

Mr Bryza rejected fears about the feasibility of the EU-backed Nabucco pipeline, aimed at carrying Caspian gas to Europe via Turkey after Azerbaijan – the main supplier – signed a deal with Gazprom last month on selling non-defined quantities of gas to the Russian company.

"It's not worrying at all. President Ilham Aliev's priority is clearly to produce and export as much gas as possible to Europe as quickly as possible, but at the same time he has to live right next door to Russia, where gas demands are increasing. So he's got to find a way to balance these relations," the US diplomat noted.

However, he stressed that it was important for Europe to do more, in order to "ensure that president Aliev knows Europe is Azerbaijan's strategic partner", and in this context, the Eastern Partnership is a welcome step.

Europeans do not just have to prove that they just want Azerbaijan's gas, but they also have to "embrace Azerbaijan as a strategic partner in broader ways, not just as a blank face like a post office box from which the gas comes."

EU's envoy to the Caucasus Peter Semneby traveled to Baku on Monday to meet Azeri officials precisely to discuss the Eastern Partnership and issues concerning the frozen conflict in Nagorno Karabakh, an Azeri region occupied by neighbouring Armenia.

Armenian row

Meanwhile, the conflict in Nagorno Karabakh looked to overshadow president Obama's visit to Turkey, during which Ankara was set to announce a historic protocol with Armenia.

Turkey closed its borders to Armenia in 1993, in solidarity with Azerbaijan, whose population is also Turcik.

Despite calls from Ms Clinton and Turkish president Abdullah Gul, Azeri president Ilham Aliev refused to join Mr Obama in Istanbul on Monday for the UN interfaith conference called the „Alliance of civilisations."

He also threatened to cut gas supplies to Turkey if Ankara signs the agreement prior to the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh issue.