BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- Cooperation in the energy sector between Europe and countries in the Russian sphere of influence is growing but not in a dominant way, a regional analyst said.
Europe and its allies in the United States are keen to monitor developments in the Eastern European and Central Asian energy sector. Conflicts between Russia and Georgia in 2008 disrupted the flow of oil through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline and acrimony between Kiev and Moscow has created problems for natural gas deliveries.
"(Western allies), as well as Russia, are interested in Caspian energy sources but do not demonstrate the same clear intention to dominate in the region," Marcel de Haas, senior research fellow on security policy at the Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael, told the Azeri news agency News.Az.
He said energy resources play "a great role" in Western policies in the region. The European Union should integrate its polices in the region but the foreign policy doctrine of Russia defines much of the area as its zone of influence.
"This policy is definite today, which we have seen in events in Georgia and Ukraine," he said.
