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Azerbaijan's Security Vital To Europe's Energy Security

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  • Azerbaijan's Security Vital To Europe's Energy Security

    AZERBAIJAN'S SECURITY VITAL TO EUROPE'S ENERGY SECURITY

    New Europe
    June 11 2013

    Azerbaijan is ready to play a greater role in Europe's long-term
    energy security but it has reminded the international community that
    in return, Europe, its biggest energy recipient, must acknowledge
    the security issues it faces at home.

    The conference in Vienna entitled The Geopolitics of Azerbaijan
    and European Energy Security, heard Monday from Azerbaijani and EU
    politicians, diplomats and experts in international oil and gas. It
    was told that the US $60 billion invested in Azerbaijan's energy
    infrastructure since independence means it is well placed to exploit
    its 2.6 trillion cubic metres proven reserves of natural gas.

    "We can produce a whole lot more," said Azerbaijan Energy Minister
    Natig Aliyev.

    But his Azerbaijan parliamentary colleague Elkhan Suleymanov, warned
    the stability that has made this bonanza possible is tested on a
    daily basis by a conflict most gas end-users ignore - the occupation
    of Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenia for the past 21 years.

    "The amount of pecuniary damage caused by this war is $US431.5
    billion," he said, quoting from the study published in the U.S. in
    2012 called The Invasion of Azerbaijani Lands.

    He also highlighted the latest threat to his nation; the dilapidated
    Sarsang Reservoir in Armenian-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh that engineers
    and hydrologists recently confirmed is at risk of catastrophic failure
    and at the mercy of saboteurs due to a lack of maintenance.

    "The Sarsang reservoir is in emergency condition," Suleymanov told
    the conference.

    "Thus the lives of 400,000 people in six provinces of Azerbaijan are
    in danger."

    Despite resolutions in the United Nations, the Parliamentary Assembly
    of the Council of Europe, the Organisation of Security and Cooperation
    in Europe (OSCE) and the European Parliament, Armenia still occupies
    20 percent of Azerbaijani territory.

    The ongoing aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh, said Professor Gerhard
    Mangott of the University of Innsbruck, proves Nagorno-Karabakh
    "cannot be considered a frozen conflict".

    Israeli Ambassador to Austria, Aviv Shir-On, said his nation and
    Azerbaijan are both "small nations in difficult neighborhoods" adding,
    "We appreciate the efforts of Azerbaijan to establish trade and energy
    policies but also a foreign policy consisting of delicate balances
    vis-a-vis international and regional organisations."

    The event was moderated by former Austrian Chancellor Alfred
    Gusenbauer, who said nations have a habit of forgetting conflicts like
    Nagorno-Karabakh because "the newest conflict is the most interesting
    conflict".

    He closed by urging the international community to do more to help
    find an end of Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijani territory, for
    humanitarian reasons as much as reasons of energy security.

    http://www.neurope.eu/article/azerbaijan-s-security-vital-europe-s-energy-security

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