THE KYIV ENERGY SUMMIT: Prospects and Implications for the US, the EU, and Eurasia June 25, 2008

Host: The Hudson Institute. This past May, the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and the three Baltic States—together with key officials from Washington, Brussels, and key Eurasian capitals from Astana to Ashgabat—met in Kyiv and agreed on the Transit Space Concept (TSC). Within this framework, which will promote alternative energy transport routes from Eurasian producing countries to European markets, producer, transit, and consumer states are all predicted to benefit.
Yet, while the summit represented a significant step forward to cooperation among a set of diverse countries with potentially diverging interests, perhaps even more significant is the role of the absent elephant in the room: Russia. A series of increasingly assertive statements from the Russian foreign ministry regarding Ukrainian sovereignty (especially over the Crimean Black Sea port of Sevastopol), together with overt threats of price increases for gas and of “responses” to Ukraine’s signing of a NATO Membership Action Plan (slated for later this year) has led many to question the viability of the TSC—and of Ukraine as its central link. Here to present an informed Ukrainian perspective on the Summit and on Eurasian energy will be Oleh Shamshur, current Ukrainian ambassador to the United States. A former deputy foreign minister and head of the Ukrainian MFA’s European Union Department, Shamshur has considerable expertise in Ukraine’s ties with both Washington and Brussels—as well as in the economic issues. Also speaking will be Adam Sterling of the National Security Council, whose remarks will be off the record; Lana Ekimoff of the Department of Energy; and Dan Stein of the Trade and Development Agency. This on the record meeting will take place at Hudson Institute, located at 1015 15th St, NW, 6th Floor, Washington, DC. For more information and RSVPs, please contact Onur Sazak at onur@hudson.org or call (202) 974 6445 . Please RSVP by noon on June 25, 2008.

Official Website: http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=hudson_upcoming_events&id=579