(((The most likely way we'll see an "energy NATO" is to have
Russia actually *inside* NATO. Still, it's interesting to see a bald proposal that energy-starved nations should form a military cartel. You could get India and China to join that one in a second.)))
IS AN 'ENERGY NATO' IN THE OFFING? Speaking on the margins of the
Riga NATO summit on November 28, U.S. Senator Richard Lugar
(Republican, Indiana), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, said that the Atlantic alliance should assist under its
Article 5 mutual defense clause any member whose energy supplies are threatened, the "International Herald Tribune" reported on November
29.
He argued that Article 5 was designed to thwart the "coercion" of any member state as well as a direct attack on one. He stressed that the alliance should determine what it will do "if Poland, Latvia, or another member state is threatened as Ukraine was" during its January
2006 gas crisis. (((An only too-likely development.)))
At that time, Polish leaders called on consumers to form an "energy NATO" to protect their interests against pressure and
"blackmail" by Moscow (see "RFE/RL Newsline," January 6, 9, and 20, and October 31, 2006). Polish Ambassador to Germany Marek Prawda, however, spoke in Riga on November 28 against invoking Article 5 and called instead for setting up a European energy-security framework.
Some Czech experts at that meeting said that NATO should play an increased role in energy-security matters but stressed that the practical implications should be carefully thought through. Like
Ambassador Prawda, some Czech participants said that invoking Article
5 in an energy dispute could ultimately weaken NATO's effectiveness in military-security matters. (((The Czechs haven't won a military confrontation since the early 1600s.)))
Lugar replied that it is crucial to develop alternative energy supply routes and sources as soon as possible. Britain's "The Guardian" wrote on November 29 that Russia's
"cutting off gas supplies to...Ukraine in the dead of winter [was] an illegitimate instrument of intimidation. Beyond Russia's 'near abroad,' [President Vladimir] Putin combines measures to increase
Europe's dependency on Russian supplies with reminders that Asia provides an alternative outlet. The idea is that Europe should take the hint and avoid disagreement with Moscow – a form of diplomatic self-policing known [in Cold War days] as 'Finlandization.'"
(((This one kinda cries out for a neologism – "petro-Finlandization,"
okay, there you go.)))
The paper added that "European diplomacy should be aimed at [encouraging]
Russian policy makers...to live up to their obligations under the
Energy Charter treaty and end their pipeline monopoly by signing the transit protocol. Otherwise, Europe will single-mindedly pursue a policy of energy independence by diversifying its energy mix, improving efficiency, and building the supply infrastructure needed to access non-Russian sources.... It is not 'Russophobic' to oppose the hegemonic ambitions of the Kremlin." PM
