World Powers Eye Central Asia's Energy

The EU wants to secure energy supplies by pledging aid; Russia and China are countering with a different tack; and Turkey has a renewed interest in the region

by Andrew Rettman

Russia and China are trying to counter EU efforts to secure fresh energy supplies in Central Asia, the EU's top regional envoy, Pierre Morel, has warned, with analysts worried Turkey could also start competing with European interests if its EU accession hopes fade.

"There's a level of competition - you've got Russia, China and the US. There's Turkey as well, and India is developing a strategy," Mr Morel told MEPs at a European Parliament debate in Brussels on Tuesday (8 May), as Europe gears up to launch its first ever Central Asia policy at the June EU summit.

Focusing on Russia and China, the diplomat explained that despite traditional "rivalry" between Moscow and Beijing, the pair are increasingly using the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - a dormant anti-terrorist club formed in 2001 - to discuss the energy map in Central Asia.

He described the duo's strategy on Central Asia as a "head of state approach" that differs from the EU's €750 million Central Asia aid package for 2007 to 2013, which is based on wider social, trade and environmental projects designed to nurture long-term stability.

"I don't think there's an equivalent from Russia or China in terms of water or environmental management," Mr Morel said, adding that EU "institutional strengthening" - it wants to remodel Central Asian judiciaries and parliaments - is the only way to bring in major, international energy investors.

"Just having a head of state approach will not help," he explained. "The Russians have not struck the right level yet. These countries fear the return of Russia or at least of energy being used as a leverage against them."

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan broke away from the Soviet Union in the 1990s and are believed to hold up to 5 percent of the world's energy resources.

But almost all their oil and gas exports to Europe are currently shipped via Russian-owned pipelines, with Brussels feeling increasingly uncomfortable about its energy dependency on the Kremlin.

RUSSIA'S POST-COLONIAL GAME
In terms of Russia's "head of state approach," Moscow's tactics seem to consist of a mix of intimidation and encouragement for the authoritarian regimes that run the three energy-rich Central Asian states.

"Turkmenistan is very important in terms of gas deliveries to Russia. Russia is going to use Turkmenistan to meet its [natural gas export] commitments," Mr Morel explained, six months after the sudden death of Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov, which handed control of the country back to the Soviet-era administrative elite.

Estonian socialist MEP Katrin Saks also told Mr Morel on Tuesday that "It was clear during our talks that Kazakhstan was being put under great pressure from Russia on the energy issue," after visiting Astana as part of a European Parliament delegation last week.

In the case of Uzbekistan, Russia and China's willingness to tolerate gross human rights violations have seen Uzbek government-backed Russian and Chinese investors drive out US and German companies at a "spectacular" rate, Ms Saks said.

THE TURKEY QUESTION
Meanwhile, EU candidate Turkey sees itself as a natural partner for EU energy interests in Central Asia, due to its geographic position and historic links with the ethnically-Turkic population scattered in neighbouring states. But some analysts wonder how Ankara will react if its bid to join the EU fails.

"Turkish policy towards Central Asia...has a tendency to ebb and flow as Turkey is rejected or not by the west, and the result is that now we see Turkey embracing Central Asia once again with a renewed emphasis on pan-Turkism," Raffaello Pantucci of the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies told EUobserver.

"If it plays its cards right, it could become a critical nub for Central Asian energy supplies...[which] seems to be one of Turkey's major alternatives in the face of European rejection," he added.

"We have special ties and vested interests in the Eurasia region, but we have never viewed our relations with the region as an alternative to our EU course," a Turkish diplomat said. "I don't think Mr Sarkozy's presidency will change our position on that," the contact added, on the new French president's anti-Turkey accession policy.

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