Lower-Profile Georgia Forum Backs 'Southern Gas Corridor'

The energy forum in Batumi, Georgia, was downgraded from a summit to a conference as several presidents failed to show up. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Representatives of eleven countries participated Thursday in an energy forum in the Georgian port of Batumi which declared support for the EU-sponsored “Southern Gas Corridor”.

The Bulgarian delegation included Minister of Energy, Economy, and Tourism Traicho Traikov. Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Poland, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were also represented.

The forum was initially advertised as a summit but was later downgraded to an "energy conference at the highest level" since the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine failed to attend it.

The forum supported the further development of the Southern Gas Corridor which is supposed to improve EU’s energy security through diversification of sources of natural gas. The Southern Gas Corridor includes the planned Nabucco gas pipeline and the Turkey-Italy-Greece gas pipeline. It entails going around Russia and delivering Caspian gas to Europe through Azerbaijan and Georgia.

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