Ukrainian president wants common position on Russia from gas importing states

16:37

Gas importing countries should unite their efforts to draft a common position in respect to Russia, Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko said in an article published in the U.S. newspaper the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

"So long as those countries that rely on Russian gas are divided, we put ourselves in a dependent position. Since 2006, however, the alarm bells on the gas issue have been largely ignored. Of course, Russia deserves a fair price for the exploitation of its natural resources, but the relationship needs to be rebalanced. Politics needs to be taken out of the equation and a more normal commercial relationship established," the president said.

"Whether Moscow is motivated by political concerns or simply a desire to increase the return on its assets, it is in the interests of all importing countries to coordinate our response. Only by cooperating can we maximize our collective bargaining power and secure our individual national interests," Yuschenko said.

"As significant net importers of energy, Ukraine and the European Union have clear common interests. Energy security for Ukraine, a major transit country, is also the best guarantee of energy security for our European neighbors. The energy security of the wider European space is therefore indivisible," the head of state said.

Yuschenko also said that during Soviet times, there had been no problems with gas deliveries to Europe.

"For those of us who lived under the Soviet Union, there is a certain irony about energy supplies. We may have been in a Cold War with the West, but Soviet gas always flowed uninterrupted across the Iron Curtain. Nowadays, thankfully, the Soviet Union is no more - and yet Russian gas has become a strategic weapon. Those of us who are net importers cannot help but wonder: Is Moscow saying that gas supplies will be a problem unless it can have its sphere of influence once again?" he said.

Yuschenko also stressed the need to diversify gas supplies and develop the use of renewable energy resources in order to decrease dependence on Russian gas.

One way to reduce reliance on Russia, and an important part of the policy package for any country planning for the long term, is diversification, he said.

"In Ukraine's case, for example, the country's untapped Black Sea gas reserves needed to be quantified and exploited with European cooperation. But putting all faith in gas is not the answer: The emphasis should be on cleaner technologies. All of us in the European neighborhood can learn from each other to increase the proportion of renewable sources in the energy mix. In other words, limiting global warming and improving our energy security can go hand in hand," he said.

17.02.2009