DUSHANBE, July 20, 2012, Asia-Plus — On Friday July 20 Tajik President Emomali Rahmon received Mr. Urban Rusnak, Secretary-General of the Energy Charter, the president’s official website reports.
In the course of the talks, the two reportedly discussed a broad range of issues related to bilateral cooperation between Tajikistan and the Energy Charter.
Tajik leader noted that Tajikistan, which was rich in water and energy resources, was interested in expansion of energy cooperation with all countries of the world and international organizations.
The Energy Charter, for his part, secretary-general, for his part, noted that the Energy Charter would support Tajikistan’s efforts to achieve energy security.
Emomali Rahmon stressed that while working out its hydroelectricity projects Tajikistan had always taken into consideration interests of all the countries of the region.
The roots of the Energy Charter date back to a political initiative launched in Europe in the early 1990s, at a time when the end of the Cold War offered an unprecedented opportunity to overcome previous economic divisions. Nowhere were the prospects for mutually beneficial cooperation clearer than in the energy sector, and there was a recognized need to ensure that a commonly accepted foundation was established for developing energy cooperation among the states of Eurasia. On the basis of these considerations, the Energy Charter process was born.
The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is an international agreement which provides a multilateral framework for energy trade, transit and investments. Originally, the Energy Charter process based on integrating the energy sectors of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe at the end of the Cold War into the broader European and world markets.
The original Energy Charter declaration was signed in The Hague on December 17, 1991. It was a political declaration of principles for international energy including trade, transit and investment, together with the intention to negotiate a legally-binding treaty.
In December 2007, the Energy Charter Conference reaffirmed its support for the finalization of negotiations and adoption of the Energy Charter Protocol on Transit in order to expand the existing provisions of the treaty. In this context, the conference resolved to ask the Energy Charter Group on Trade and Transit to return to multilateral consultations on the draft Transit Protocol during 2008, with a report back to the Conference on the outcome of these consultations at the end of 2008. On March 22, 2010, a Strategy Group was established, with a mandate to promote modernization.
