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Ankara to host high-profile ceremony for Nabucco deal
The signing ceremony was announced by the Foreign Ministry earlier this week, after negotiations on gas transit fees and other issues between Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, which started in January, were successfully finalized last month with the participation of Germany. The European Union Commission was also involved as in the negotiations as a facilitator.
Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria are expected to be represented by their prime ministers at the ceremony, while Romania will be probably represented by its president.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has also sent invitations to leaders of countries which are seen as potential natural gas suppliers for the Nabucco pipeline project as well as to the leaders of the countries who declared their support for the project. Accordingly, invitations have been sent to Azerbaijan, Iraq, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
The US strongly supports Nabucco, which is to link the Caspian Sea region, the Middle East and Egypt to the European Union via Turkey and is designed to reduce EU dependence on Russian natural gas, but the project has yet to secure enough suppliers to make it viable.
A US delegation led by Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Affairs Ambassador Richard Morningstar will attend the ceremony in a show of the US's support for the project, while Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili is also expected to be in Ankara on Monday for the ceremony.
EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and executives from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) will be among ceremony's attendees.
Leaders of the signatory countries, namely Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, are expected to be accompanied by either their energy minister or their economy minister.
While an invitation was sent to the Russian capital, no invitation was sent to Tehran, news reports said. Iran was not invited to a Nabucco summit that was held in Budapest last year. President Abdullah Gül attended that summit.
In total, delegations from 18 countries are expected to attend the ceremony, which will take place at the Rixos Grand Ankara Hotel.
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