Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting organized by the Turkish-American Business Association (TABA/Amcham), Alirıza said Turkey and the US have shifted focus to a “model partnership” project and the improvement of mutual economic relations. Underlining that Turkey has recently become “more dependant” on Russia regarding energy supplies, Alirıza noted that energy has lost its importance on the agenda of the two countries.
Noting that the US has been supporting “diversity” in the region’s energy markets, he said the country supported a Nabucco project, which is aimed at reducing Europe’s reliance on Russian gas. At the same time, the US is not against the South Stream project, which plans to pump Russian and Central Asian gas to Europe under the Black Sea.
Russia’s growing impact in the region
“It is a well-known fact that Russia has increased its impact in the region remarkably in the past few years,” Alirıza argued, adding that the US had no problem with Turkey becoming closer to this country. Asked whether the US administration, which also tries hard to maintain strong ties with the countries in the region, had planned any new initiatives against the rise of Russia, he said, “The new government [the Obama administration] has dismissed the previous policy of Bush administration which forced countries to either be on the US’ side or be against it.”
Also speaking at the meeting, World Energy Council Turkish National Committee member Necdet Pamir criticized the government for a recently signed nuclear energy deal with Russia. Underlining that Turkey could become dependant on Russia for nuclear energy supply in addition to natural gas, Pamir said they did their best to inform the public about such serious issues and some experts in the energy field had made significant efforts to this end.
