Why should Europe and Central Asia be friends?
April 20, 2018 | 01:25 |325
The issues of the development of the partnership between Europe and the Central Asian region were discussed in Riga during the high-level discussion entitled “Strengthening and Energizing EU–Central Asia relations” (SEnECA). This was the first event organized by the SEnECA consortium established under a European Union (EU) project. The project aims at establishing a cooperation network of the EU and Central Asian researchers and policy-makers, as well as producing proposals to strengthen EU–Central Asia relations. According to Andrejs Pildegovičs, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, who stressed in his opening remarks that the EU should take forward its cooperation with Central Asia in economic development, education and good governance. As for Latvia, then, according to the Secretary of State of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, Riga is prepared to move ahead with cooperation projects in Central Asia in the areas such as border management, public administration, the development of civil service, the promotion of export capacity in agriculture, as well as education, environment and green technologies. Of course, all of the above-mentioned areas are very important, but it seems that the basic principle of the partnership between the EU and Central Asia is more fundamental that will in future determine the economic aspect of Eurasia. Partnership between countries and regions is like a two-way street – the parties should take steps towards each other and clearly understand what they will receive through partnership. It is more or less clear about advantage of Central Asia from cooperation with Europe. This are loans and modern technologies for implementing large infrastructure projects, experience in managing these infrastructure projects, and long-term markets for the sale of resources. At the same time, the partnership with Central Asia promises to the Europe a solution to one of the most “old” problems – the diversification of natural gas supply. Europeans believe that several countries dominate at the energy market of the Old World, and if there are any problems with one supplier, then there will be no one to replace, and hence consumers will be out of gas supply. Europe considers this issue as politically important. According to European analysts, the problem will be solved if there is another reliable supplier of natural gas. On the other hand – where to get a new supplier? At the same time, all projects and calculations in this area show that the only way to diversify the European gas supply is delivery of Central Asian gas, or more precisely put, Turkmen gas. Since currently, only Turkmenistan has sufficient natural gas reserves to ensure long-term and uninterrupted supply of significant amounts of fuel. By the way, Turkmenistan, in terms of natural gas reserves, is in the top four countries of the world, along with Russia, Iran and Qatar. At present, Azerbaijan is completing the laying of a pipeline system to transport its gas to Europe, which will begin operating by 2020. However, experts believe that this gas pipeline will be economically feasible only if it connects gas from Turkmenistan, since Azerbaijan does not have enough gas to fill up the pipe. According to experts, after signing the Convention on the Caspian Sea legal status, which is to be held in Astana in 2018, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan can start construction of the Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline, and it will further ensure the supply of Turkmen natural gas to the European market via Baku and Istanbul.Nury AMANOV
