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Wave of Energy Washes over Baltic
// Russia and the EU meet in Riga
The Baltic Sea States Summit and a two-day regional business forum begin today in Riga. A key topic at both events will be the energy policy of Russia and the European Union, and the business forum will be the last before negotiations at the Russian-EU summit in Khanty-Mansi. Russian Prime Minister refused to visit Riga, so Russia will be represented by First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Kommersant correspondent Alexander Gabuev has the details.
Incomplete Forum
Organizers of the seventh summit of the Baltic Sea states had wanted to assemble the presidents and heads of government of ten European countries - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden – today and tomorrow. Russia was invited as well. However, not long before the summit was to begin, it became clear that not all of the invitees would attend. First German Chancellor Angela Merkel cancelled. She politely apologized to the organizers and explained that her schedule would not allow her to travel to Riga, but she would send her Minister of State for Europe Guenther Gloser. Putin was another politician who declined to attend the summit, although he was one of the most keenly awaited. The meeting in the Latvian capital would be the last on that level before the Russia-EU summit June 26-27 in Khanty-Mansiisk. There, Moscow and Brussels should embark upon long-awaited negotiations to conclude a new agreement on partnership and cooperation.
The current meeting, at which almost half the members states of the EU will be represented (and that half that has the most problems in their relations with Moscow), is a chance for Russian and European leaders to compare notes a final time. The initial impression was that Moscow was inclined to accept the Latvian invitation. Russian Ambassador to Latvia Alexander Veshnyakov said that the Russian prime minister would try to find time in his crowded schedule to come to Riga, at least for a few hours. Putin’s recent trips as prime minister showed that it is possible. He was in Paris last week, for example, and found time to visit former president Jacques Chirac, meet with a writer and visit a museum. The Latvian Foreign Ministry reported that it had sent Putin a personal invitation and was waiting for an answer.
Putin’s response came as a surprise to Latvian diplomats. The Russian government announced that he would not go to Riga because he did not receive a personal invitation from Latvia. Many in Riga recalled the exchange that occurred between Putin and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers at the Bucharest NATO summit in April. The Latvian president publicly accused Putin of “Cold War thinking.” In response, Putin raised the question of the civil rights of Russian-speakers in Latvia.
One way or another, Putin decided to send his first deputy prime minister in his place.
Energetic Exchange
Shuvalov will be far from the only representative of the country in Riga. Simultaneously with the political summit, a Baltic region business forum will take place in the Latvian capital. The business elite from 11 countries will gather for two days at the fashionable Reval Hotel Latvija to discuss specific business problems, the solutions to which are supposed to clear the way for the new agreement between the EU and Russia. There are three formal topics that the participants are to discuss: energy, finance and transportation. Although prominent figures in transportation and finance are coming (Alfa Bank head Petr Aven and Sberbank deputy chairman Alexander Zakharov, for example), no one doubts that energy will be the main topic.
Energy issues promise to be the most difficult at the upcoming EU-Russia summit. Brussels has been pressing Moscow to sign the Energy Charter for years. In particular, the Europeans are insisting on the division of the production and transport facilities of those Russian companies that provide energy to Europe, a demand that affects Gazprom most of all. In addition, the European Commission stubbornly refuses to allow Gazprom and other Russian hydrocarbon providers access to EU final producers. And, after Russia’s recent gas wars with Ukraine and Belarus, Brussels is accusing Moscow of using energy supplies as a political weapon and is demanding a security guarantee.
It is appropriate that preliminary discussion of energy problems should take place at a Baltic forum, since that region has become practically the main irritant in relations between Moscow and Brussels. Lithuania, for example, blocked negotiations on a new agreement between the EU and Russia for several months, accusing Russia of stopping energy supplies through the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline. Only a week ago was Brussels able to convince Vilnius to lift its veto.
Also, the Baltic region is where Russia plans to implement one of its key projects, the North Stream natural gas pipeline, which will be built along the floor of the Baltic Sea, passing the Baltic states and Poland. The leadership of those countries is extremely dissatisfied with the project and is proposing, instead of the extravagant and, they say, ecologically dangerous undersea pipeline, that a pipeline be built above ground. Russia, wishing to remain independent of transit countries, rejects that proposal.
The Riga forum begins today with a discussion of energy problems. “East and West: Energy in the Baltic Sea Region” is the announced topic. The EU’s interests will be represented by European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. He will face off against a group of managers from Gazprom, E.On and BASF, the companies that are collaborating on North Stream, as well as representatives of the operating company for the construction of the pipeline Nord Stream AG. Gazprom deputy chairman Valery Golubev will lead that group. Gazprominvestholding chief Alisher Usmanov will also represent the Russian gas giant’s interests at the forum.
Today’s discussion will be a prelude to the negotiation battles between Russia and the EU as they try to work out a new agreement on partnership and cooperation. Judging by the mood of the participants, not even the preliminary discussion in Riga will be easy.
Alexander Gabuev
All the Article in Russian as of June 03, 2008
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