Tbilisi-Baku-Ceyhan a US success

Director of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute Frederick Starr has stated that the major and so far only success of American diplomacy since the collapse of the Soviet Union is the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main oil pipeline. Starr thinks that the Caspian region has faced many common problems but every country has peculiarities of its own. He is sure that Moscow’s influence in the region has decreased and that the realities of the region influence the reality of the energy segment as the region has very big influence on energy security in Europe.

The analyst also mentioned certain discrepancies between the positions of Turkey and Azerbaijan concerning the transit of the gas to Europe through Turkey, which leave Europe still dependent on Russian gas.