Our View: Imperative for Cyprus to become part of new energy plan for the region 

After President Anastasiades’ meeting with the US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, the government spokesman issued a written statement in which he said, they discussed the consequences of the current energy crisis as well as “the importance of the EU’s energy independence, through the differentiating of its energy sources.”

Anastasiades “underlined the substantive contribution that Cyprus could make in this sector, pointing out that in the framework of cooperation between similarly-thinking states of the broader region, on issues of natural gas and other green forms of energy, there could be investments for the creation of the Energy Corridor of the Eastern Mediterranean, for the export of energy to European markets through the suitable infrastructure.”

Are we to deduce that Anastasiades has finally given up on the EastMed pipeline, the prospects of which, he claimed recently, had been given a boost by the war in Ukraine and Europe’s resolve to end its energy dependence on Russia? The pipeline it would seem has now been replaced by an “Energy Corridor” whatever that means, presumably because Nuland had told the president the EastMed was not an option, something she made clear in her comments after the meeting.

Asked about this option, Nuland said the idea to build a very long pipeline in very deep water over some 10 years was “too expensive, not economically viable and will take too long.” She said, “we do not have 10 years” as “we are looking for options that can get us more gas, more oil for this short transition period.”

Nuland did not share Anastasiades’ position that energy cooperation must be among “similarly-thinking states,” pointing out that the US saw Turkey participating in the region’s energy planning. While in Ankara, she had “the strong sense they (Turkey) too are looking at diversifying energy supplies, so there may be the opportunity in this that we need to develop and continue.”

This was in line with comments she made, earlier in the week, to Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper about the need for Israel and Turkey “to have good strong trade relation and energy relations.” The US “particularly want to help Turkey and its goal of diversifying away from Russian (energy) dependence,” she added.

Efforts for energy cooperation between Israel and Turkey, which would involve sending gas from Israel’s gas fields to Turkey via pipeline, commenced before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, although an agreement seemed far away. The war and the West’s drive to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian gas, has made such an agreement a matter of urgency.

Cyprus must find a way of becoming a part of these energy plans because if it is excluded it might never be able to exploit the gas in its EEZ. Nuland gave a broad outline of US thinking for energy in the region and Anastasiades should be looking at how to involve Cyprus, as this will be the only show in town.