Vestnik Kavkaza: Trans-Caspian Pipeline needs consensus

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that there were attempts by foreign countries to influence the decisions of Caspian states. He urged the Caspian countries to decide together on what conditions and in what order to build Trans-Caspian pipelines to maintain ecological security.

Naturally, the ecological standards of the Trans-Caspian Pipeline are important for Russia. Moscow is not very interested in building a corridor for shipment of hydrocarbons from Central Asia to the West, it would bring large geopolitical players with their vague dimensions to the region. Most projects concerning the Southern Corridor realized by the West in the South Caucasus and Central Asia have a veiled political nature, rather than economic. Because there is no vital economic need to get oil and gas from the West this way. It is all covered by economic rationality, but the final strategic goal is most likely political.

The West has several goals in lobbying the Trans-Caspian Pipeline, they are indiscreet or hidden. The pipeline is lobbied for by European states and Americans. The pipeline generally fits into the concept of the Southern Energy Corridor that the Americans have been promoting for very many years.
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