Cheney in Georgia, promises additional routes for Oil exports

[MikeWB]

Cheney in Georgia, promises additional routes for Oil exports


Cheney pledges US support for Georgia

By Isabel Gorst in Tbiliisi

September 4 2008 <

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/30ff9d6c-7a9e ... 07658.html

Dick Cheney, the US vice president, pledged on Thursday that Washington would stand behind Georgia, helping rebuild the country's economy and promoting Georgian efforts to join Nato to protect against Russian aggression.

"In America Georgia has a sturdy and faithful friend," Mr Cheney said at a meeting in Tbilisi with Mikheil Sakaashvili, the Georgian leader.

Mr Cheney condemned Russia's "illegitimate attempt to change borders by force". He said Russian action during the conflict with Georgia over the breakaway enclave of South Ossetia had "cast great doubt on Russia's intentions and on its reliability as an international partner."

Mr Cheney made no mention Georgia's importance to US energy interests, the focus of talks on Wednesday with Ilham Aliev, the president of oil-rich Azerbaijan.

Strategic oil and gas pipelines built with strong support from the US across Azerbaijan and Georgia to the west have loosened Russia's stranglehold over Caspian energy exports routes

But the war in Georgia has highlighted the fragility of the pipelines, prompting Azerbaijan to seek alternative routes via Russia and Iran.

Mr Cheney said a $1bn package of US humanitarian aid for Georgia announced this week would help the country rebuild and regain its position as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Georgian officals said Mr Sakaashvili had urged Mr Cheney to fast-track Georgia's entry to the European Union and Nato to demonstrate to Russia that "it failed to achieve what it was trying to do" to reassert control over pro-west Georgia.

Mr Cheney said the US was "fully committed" to Georgia's entry to Nato's Membership Action Plan, the first step towards full membership of the alliance. ... ==

Cheney promises additional routes for energy exports in Caucasus region

Cheney in Caucasus energy pledge

By Isabel Gorst in Tbilisi

Published: September 3 2008

www.ft.com/cms/s/0/031ee808-79e0-11dd-b ... 07658.html

Dick Cheney, the US vice-president, said on Wednesday that Washington would work with countries in the Caucasus region to develop additional routes for energy exports.

Speaking in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, following a meeting with Ilham Aliyev, the country's president, Mr Cheney said energy security was an "increasingly urgent" issue

Energy users and producers are best served when "energy export routes are diverse and reliable", Mr Cheney said, according to Bloomberg. He said the US would co-operate with Turkey and Caucasus states "on additional routes for energy exports that ensure the free flow of resources''.

Azerbaijan is the first of three stops Mr Cheney is making on a mission ordered by President George W. Bush to reinforce alliances and reassure leaders in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine of US support after last month's Russia-Georgia conflict. The US was planning on Wednesday to announce a $1bn package of aid to help rebuild Georgia, a US administration official said.

The conflict in Georgia has tipped the balance of power in the Caucasus in Russia's favour and may persuade Azerbaijan to lean more towards Moscow.

The US forged a close alliance with Azerbaijan in the 1990s, encouraging it to invite western oil companies to tap its huge oil reserves and to host pipelines carrying Caspian energy across the Caucasus to the west, bypassing Russia and Iran.

But the war in Georgia has exposed the vulnerability of the so called "east-west energy corridor" tarnishing the US main policy success in the Caspian region and threatening to undermine Azerbaijan's revival.

An oil pipeline from Baku to Supsa on the Georgian Black Sea was closed last month after Russian aircraft dropped bombs near the pipeline not far from Georgia's border with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan moved swiftly to establish alternative export routes, committing extra oil to a pipeline to the Russian Black Sea and agreeing temporarily to export oil to Iran, moves that have touched a raw nerve in Washington.

Azerbaijan has trod a delicate diplomatic path since independence, advancing its interests while protecting relations with the US, Russia and Iran.

While committing itself to a strategic partnership with the US, it has not followed Georgia's course in applying for membership of Nato or the European Union.

Azerbaijan has not joined the west in condemning Russian action in Georgia. Mr Aliyev was diplomatic on Wednesday, saying he hoped for a "strengthening of security measures'' with the US.

Commenting on Mr Cheney's tour, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman, Andrei Nesterenko, said: "We need to wait until Mr Cheney is actually in Georgia to see how he assesses the situation.

"But all these calls on Tbilisi [by the US] about the need to restore all of its destroyed military capability and so on do not in any way promote the stabilisation of the situation in the region," he said.