In the aftermath of Russia’s incursion into Georgia, U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar is embarking on a two-week, nine-nation mission that focuses on the trans-Atlantic alliance’s energy security. Lugar will meet with officials in France, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Romania, Ukraine, Germany, and at NATO and EU headquarters in Brussels.

 

“It is time for the trans-Atlantic community to establish a credible energy security strategy that diversifies energy sources for all Europe, establishes a collective framework to work with Russia, and refuses to tolerate the use of energy as an instrument of coercion,” Lugar said at a speech in April.

 

“The absence of a collective energy security strategy will lead to greater fragmentation among European nations and across the Atlantic. This fragmentation will not be exclusive to energy policy; it may also detrimentally impact our ability to act upon shared security and economic issues,” he said. A full text of the speech can be found at http://lugar.senate.gov/energy/press/speech/ukraine.cfm.

 

Lugar’s meetings are a continuation from last January’s mission that took him to Georgia and Ukraine, and to the production end of oil and gas pipelines in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan.

 

On August 23 Lugar will meet with the International Energy Agency in Paris. He is also attending an U.S. policy conference on Islam governance and ideology.

 

Lugar then travels to Georgia on August 23-24 for official meetings and oversight of humanitarian assistance.

 

He will have official meetings in Baku, Azerbaijan on August 25 followed by meetings with government leaders and energy pipeline officials in Ankara, Turkey on August 26.

 

Lugar will follow the proposed Nabucco Pipeline route on August 27-29 with meetings in Bucharest, Romania.

 

August 30-31, Lugar will meet with Ukrainian leaders in Kyiv on security, energy and agricultural issues.

 

Lugar will discuss energy, security, climate and agricultural issues with German officials in Berlin on September 1-2.

 

On September 3-4, Lugar will have meetings in Brussels with EU and NATO officials. Discussions will include Georgia, energy, the Atlantic alliance, climate change and genetically modified seeds.

 

At a speech in July, Lugar said, “The fear of GM crops has been most prevalent in Europe.  Many developing countries, especially in Africa, worry that if they adopt GM crops, they will not be able to export to Europe. The governments and people of Europe must understand that their opposition to safe GM technology contributes to hunger in Africa.” (Full text available at http://lugar.senate.gov/energy/press/speech/CSIS.cfm )

 

In a July 2 speech, Lugar noted that Ukraine’s agricultural production was now roughly half of what it had at the end of the Stalinist era. “Ukraine, some agronomists believe, could supply roughly one-seventh of all the food on Earth.  The possibilities are that great, and this is why the depletion of those resources is so severe, if you're looking at a world food crisis problem,” he said. (Full text can be found at http://lugar.senate.gov/energy/press/speech/AEI.cfm )

 

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