Natural Gas Europe highlights the Atlantic Council report Developing a Western Energy Strategy for the Black Sea Region and Beyond, quoting Executive Vice President Damon Wilson and Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center and Global Energy Center Nonresident Senior Fellow and report author Ariel Cohen:
The Black Sea basin has been facing dramatic challenges, in the wake of Russia’s annexation and occupation of Crimea and the east of Ukraine, according to Atlantic Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson, who moderated a session at the Atlantic Council Energy and Economics Summitdedicated to a report on Black Sea Energy Security.
He offered, “This is the region in the Trans-Atlantic space in greater European space, where there’s been the greatest degradation of security, and yet we haven’t moved very far to update our own strategy about the region.”
That’s why the Atlantic Council, he explained, had decided to take a deeper look into security in the Black Sea region, but also to think more strategically about the energy security of the basin – aspects which he deemed “intimately connected.”
[…]
The publication’s author, Ariel Cohen, began by offering some of his key conclusions.
The prosperity of the region, he opined, will come from security – a particular challenge because of the occupation of Crimea and the Russian military build-up, which is a cause for concern for Turkey. “Secondly, the prosperity to the Black Sea area is predicated on abundant, reliable and cheap energy,” he said, explaining that this would come from not only oil and gas, electricity, including nuclear, coal, renewables, etc.
“The region is blessed with that,” said Mr. Cohen.