WEST AND RUSSIA VYING FOR ALLIES AND ENERGY IN CAUCASUS AND CENTRAL ASIA

AsiaNews.it
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Sept 17 2008
Italy

NATO continues its approach to Georgia. Moscow talks about a "Cold
war" climate as it strengthens its ties with Abkhazia and South
Ossetia. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan try to find a difficult balance
between the two rival camps. China takes advantage of the situation
to gain important energy deals.

Tbilisi (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Georgia’s march towards NATO membership
continues but Georgian authorities must "push ahead with reform
and improve further its democratic institutions and practices,"
said NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer who just ended a
two-day visit to the Caucasian country.

In a press conference Mr Hoop Scheffer said that the recent war with
Russia did not change the Georgia-NATO relationship and that no-one
can prevent the Alliance from accepting new members.

He did none the less say that he hoped that there would be no more
reports from international observers saying that Georgia’s elections
were "tainted." Current President Mikhail Saakashvili won a recent
election by a slim margin which the opposition said was full of
irregularities.

Anxious of finding support after his bitter military defeat President
Saakashvili agreed with the NATO chief. But in the country itself
his domestic opposition is growing, demanding fresh elections for
next spring.

The Kremlin slammed the "Cold War" visit, calling it anti-Russian. For
Moscow a stronger NATO-Georgia link is "not timely and does not help
stabilisation in the region."

Whilst Hoop Scheffer was in Tbilisi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov on Monday flew to Sokhumi in Abkhazia, the most senior Russian
official to visit the territory since 1993. And today Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev signed "friendship treaties" with the presidents of
Abkhazia and South Ossetia. In Moscow yesterday Medvedev met Azeri
President Ilham Aliyev.

Russia is pushing Azerbaijan to sell its gas to Russian state-owned
Gazprom, but no agreement came out of the meetings in the Russian
capital. The Azeri leader is still trying to play a balancing act
between Russia and the West and intends to sell to both.

For the European Union Aliyev remains a crucial ally because of his
country’s energy resources as well as the transit role the latter
could play for Central Asian gas, bypassing Russia.

On Georgia Aliyev was careful to stress the "need to consolidate
efforts in order to provide peace" and "diminish tension." Indeed
Baku too has to deal with its own separatist enclave of
Nagorno-Karabakh. Medvedev insisted that there was no connection
between Karabakh and the situation in Georgia, expressing Russia’s
support for the "continuation of direct talks between Azerbaijani
and Armenian presidents".

In light of the Russia-EU rivalry, the vice president of Azerbaijan’s
State Oil Company (SOCAR) Elshad Nasirov said on 12 September that
"All destinations [of gas export] are equally possible and we will
mostly consider the net profit for SOCAR," adding that that exporting
gas to India or China via Turkmenistan could be another option.

In the game Russia and the West are playing for friendly ties and
energy in the Caucasus and Central Asia, China is not standing idle.

On 29 August Turkmenistan and China signed a framework agreement to
increase planned gas supplies to China by 10 billion m3 to 40 billion
m3 a year with deliveries starting at the end of 2009, once a gas
pipeline via Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan is completed.

The deal was signed right after the Russian deputy Prime Minister
Viktor Zubkov visited Turkmenistan, a sign that Turkmen leaders want
to counterbalance Moscow’s influence.

Similarly, at the 28 August summit of the Shanghai Co-operation
Organisation (SCO) in Dushanbe China opposed any declaration of support
for Russia in its war against Georgia as Moscow had requested. Instead
the SCO group, which includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, urged the parties to solve the conflict in a
"peaceful manner."

Kazakhstan is also trying to strike a balance between Russia and
the European Union. It has rejected a Russian offer to buy all its
gas, but in Brussels yesterday at its annual summit with the EU,
the Central Asian nation did not endorse the EU’s Nabucco project–a
planned gas pipeline from Azerbaijan to Austria–saying it was still
in a preliminary phase. (PB)