The United States discussed joint efforts on European energy security and advanced the clean energy transition in Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria during the visit of Geoffrey Pyatt, the Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources new Assistant Secretary, to Istanbul, Bucharest and Sofia on October 10-14.
Pyatt reiterated the US commitment to European energy security and pledged to work with US partners to improve the region’s energy interconnectedness and avoid dependence on a single country for trade and development. “Russia, I believe, has proven for all time that it will not be a reliable supplier of energy so long as it continues to weaponize its energy resources as an instrument of war,” Pyatt said.
In Istanbul, Pyatt met with Turkey’s Deputy Minister of Energy and Natural Resources of Alparslan Bayraktar, and they discussed Turkey’s role in supporting European energy security and being a clean energy leader in the region.
In Bucharest, he discussed energy security with Romania’s State Secretary George Niculescu, Director Cornel Zeveleanu, and Nuclearelectrica’s Cosmin Ghita, Ana Birchall, and Teodor Chirica. “Romania is a regional leader in nuclear energy and European energy diversification,” Pyatt said.
In Sofia, Pyatt labeled the recently activated Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), a decade-old gas pipeline project he supported during his term as US Ambassador to Greece, “a triumph of energy diversification”.
Following talks with IGB’s Teodora Georgieva and George Satlas and US Ambassador to Bulgaria Herro Mustafa, Pyatt said, “the IGB is key to energy security for the region at this critical moment”. Pyatt also met Bulgarian President Rumen Radev in Sofia. “Bulgaria is a key partner in ensuring European energy security,” Pyatt said.
