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Speakers
Defne Arslan
Senior Director, Turkey Programs, Atlantic Council
Geoffrey R. Pyatt
Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources, US Department of State
Berris Ekinci
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Türkiye
Event transcript
Uncorrected transcript: Check against delivery
DEFNE ARSLAN: Good morning, dear guests. Thank you for joining us on our second day of the Atlantic Council’s Regional Conference on Clean and Secure Energy.
So I am looking forward to a full day of stimulating discussions and insights, and I really would like to thank you all for the excellent questions and conversations we all had yesterday. Yesterday, we indeed discussed many important issues ranging from regional renewable cooperation to the implications of the upcoming US elections. We heard important keynote remarks including His Excellency the Minister of Energy of Türkiye Mr. Alparslan Bayraktar and—along with many other distinguished speakers. Today we will explore, among other things, the rapidly changing geopolitics of the region, the current state of infrastructure, financing the green transition.
I do want to take a moment of—to reflect on this—on the concept of regional cooperation again, which brings us all together here and this is the essence of our conference yesterday and also today. I do think that we did monumental progress already, globally what we have already achieved, but still more to be done regarding the cooperation, especially so many things going on in the region—geopolitic threats, challenges that we are having, and what’s happening in Ukraine and also in Gaza and in Middle East, in the region. So still a lot to discuss. And how this will—these things will affect our cooperation in the region, especially energy cooperation, and how we can use energy cooperation to leverage these relationships and leverage the conflicts.
Of course, few people understand these things—but I need to say that few people understand these as well as Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, US assistant secretary of state for energy resources. A key member of the Foreign Service, Ambassador Pyatt has decades of experience in this region, including as former ambassador to Ukraine and Greece.
It is also my pleasure, after Ambassador Pyatt’s remarks, to introduce Ambassador Berris Ekinci, who will also deliver her remarks today, deputy minister of foreign affairs of Republic of Türkiye. Ambassador Ekinci has also had a very distinguished career in Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Türkiye, having previously served as director general for energy and environment, ambassador to Cuba, and in the Turkish Mission to the United Nations, London, Baku, and more.
And thank you, Assistant Secretary Pyatt, Deputy Minister Ekinci, for joining us this morning to deliver your remarks. Without further ado, I will pass the floor to Ambassador Pyatt for his keynote remarks, followed by Ambassador Ekinci’s keynote remarks. So, Assistant Secretary, please, floor is yours.
GEOFFREY R. PYATT: Good morning. Well, it’s great to be back here in Istanbul and a real honor to share the stage this morning with my friend Deputy Minister Ekinci.
I want to start, of course, by congratulating Fred, Defne, her whole team at the Atlantic Council for another wonderfully timed event. When Defne mentioned the plan to hold this conference again in Istanbul, I jumped at the opportunity knowing that it would be a really unique occasion full of insights and discussion among some of the region’s top energy policymakers and experts.
I also want to recognize all of the ministers who are here today or have been here to participate, including Minister Bayraktar, Minister Balluku, and Minister Bozinovska. And I’m also thrilled to point out that a large number of these ministers are women—progress that we should not take for granted, especially in the energy sector.
The same event here in Istanbul in 2022 was part of my first trip abroad as assistant secretary of state for energy resources, and today provides a really good opportunity to take stock of our work since then to promote regional energy security and energy transition. We’ve accomplished a great deal together over the past two years, including bringing energy policy to the forefront of foreign policy conversations and public consciousness. The energy transition today is accelerating, and each country is taking its own path, something that I look forward to discussing with many of you at greater depth next month at COP29 in Baku.
Since 2022, Europe has diversified its energy supply much faster than anyone would have predicted at the time. Russian gas has gone from 45 percent of EU supply in 2021 to just 15 percent last year, with a reaffirmed commitment to Europe’s target of full decoupling from Russian energy by 2027.
Turkey’s LNG import and regasification capacity has played an absolutely critical role in this unprecedented decoupling and will continue to do so as additional capacity comes online here in the country. Recent deals such as Turkey’s recent long-term contracts with Total and Shell, much of which will be composed by American-origin LNG, along with Venture Global’s capacity contract at the Alexandroupolis FSRU, are confirmation of how global energy companies are looking more and more at this part of Southeast Europe as a critical energy hub. Minister Bayraktar made clear when we were together last month in Houston that Turkey’s energy mix and sources of supply are changing permanently, which is a good thing for Turkey but also for the wider region.
Meanwhile, exciting new projects like the Vertical Corridor are set to build upon these trends. Using existing infrastructure in a cost-efficient manner, the Vertical Corridor will allow LNG imported from the Eastern Mediterranean to fill vast storage tanks as far north as Ukraine, providing a new source of gas for Central Europe and the Western Balkans and helping to reduce price volatility along the way. The Vertical Corridor will also be crucial in supporting the EU’s goals for energy decoupling by 2027, something I know is at the top of the agenda for the next European Commission. Indeed, Deputy Director-General Baldwin, who you’ll hear from later this morning, and I were together earlier this week at an event in Athens focused on exactly this topic.
Turkey’s role as a transit country for Caspian gas from Azerbaijan, and we hope in the near future Turkmenistan as well, will remain vital as gas serves an important medium-term role in route to a net-zero future. The Caspian region, of course, is an area of increased US government outreach as well, as evidenced by President Biden last year hosting the Central Asian leaders for a C5+1 summit meeting in New York. Both Turkey and the United States share the goal of helping the Central Asian region reach its full potential across the board, including on critical minerals development—which, as Minister Bayraktar pointed out yesterday, underpins our global clean energy ambitions. Turkey and the United States also share a strong desire to see oil flow again from Iraq through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, a message that the United States has repeated at the highest levels with our friends in Baghdad and will continue to do so.
This region’s energy significance is not limited to fossil fuels. Indeed, Southeast Europe plays a key role in our collective clean energy future. As Minister Bayraktar described so compellingly in his remarks yesterday, Turkey has emerged as a leader in renewable energy, demonstrating that clean energy and secure energy can do hand in hand.
Equally important to the growth of renewable deployment is the work being done to develop and expand electricity interconnections among the countries of the region. These interconnectors are what moves clean electrons that are powering the energy transition. Expanded electricity transmission offers the prospect for more flexibility, more capacity for clean energy coming onto the grid, and more reliable and affordable energy for consumers. Turkey’s new electricity interconnector with Iraq, which I was delighted to discuss with KAR Group’s CEO in Erbil a few months ago, is a great example of how Turkey’s leadership can help the wider region to make progress on energy self-sufficiency and affordability. Similarly, Romania’s electricity interconnectors with both Moldova and Ukraine have been an essential support—source of needed supply and resilience, as George Niculescu and I were able to discuss last night.
Interconnectors also allow countries with comparative advantages in wind, solar, and other clean energy technologies to export electricity in times of high production and to import electricity when needed. Recent energy price spikes in Southeast Europe are a reminder that the energy transition will require more cooperation across and among energy markets like the ENTSO-E network. Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece’s initiative to work together to combat these high electricity prices during peak times is exactly the kind of coordination that’s needed to further integrate and efficiently allocate the region’s supply and demand, and interconnectors are the foundation to that cooperation. Expanded transmission can also allow for greater renewable energy deployment, which cannot always be built close to markets that they serve due to the large footprints unlike baseload coal, gas, and nuclear supplies.
As we work together on the energy transition, it’s important that we don’t replace an era of dependence on Russian fossil fuels for an era of dependence on Chinese clean technology inputs. Clean energy supply chains provide another area for regional cooperation. This includes both securing and diversifying critical mineral supply chains in a responsible manner. Turkey’s new membership in the Minerals Security Partnership Forum is a great example of how our two countries are working together on this critical issue.
We also need to develop and leverage the region’s clean energy manufacturing base. Turkey’s world-leading industrial groups are particularly well-positioned to help us deepen our supply chains for wind and solar technologies, helping to provide alternative sources for clean energy inputs that we need to drive the energy transition.
I have great confidence that if we work together towards greater regional energy collaboration while concurrently rejecting any further ties with an unreliable Russian Federation, the region’s energy abundance will help to foster a secure, affordable, and sustainable energy system for the whole region and beyond. In this regard, as Minister Bayraktar and Secretary of Energy Granholm reaffirmed with their recent establishment of the US-Turkey Energy and Climate Dialogue, the Biden administration is strongly committed to our partnership with Ankara on all of these issues.
In that regard, I’m looking forward to listening now to Deputy Minister Ekinci. And let me thank you again for the wonderfully warm welcome back here to Istanbul. I wish you a very successful conference and look forward to the discussions to come. Thank you very much.
BERRIS EKINCI: Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests, at the outset I would like to thank Atlantic Council, and namely the president and CEO Fred Kempe and the senior director of Turkey Program Defne Arslan, for gathering us for this very timely Regional Conference on Clean and Secure Energy, as we are only a month away from COP29 to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan. And always it’s a great pleasure to have the opportunity to meet with Ambassador Pyatt and discuss issues of common interest with the US.
Energy, once simply viewed from the perspective of supply and demand, has now evolved into a much more complex and challenging topic. Today, the focus has shifted towards the role of energy in view of rising security challenges and climate concerns. Our common objective is to meet energy security concerns, support efforts to curb climate change, while at the same time maintain uninterrupted access to energy at affordable prices.
Energy security has not only become inseparable from the wide discussion on energy transition, but it has also become one of the primary elements of geopolitics and international security debate. The realities of climate change, along with rising tensions in the region, demand us to act promptly and effectively. Accordingly, international and regional cooperation has become imperative in order to combat rising challenges concerning access to energy and clean energy technologies.
Over the past few decades, taking into account its deep dependency on oil and gas imports, Türkiye invested heavily into diversifying its energy infrastructure while also increasing the adoption of renewable energies, recognizing the importance not just for its climate goals but for its long-term energy security as well. This policy has assisted the energy security of regional countries at a very critical time during the last couple of years. Today, more than 58 percent of Türkiye’s installed energy capacity comes from renewable resources, including hydro, wind, and solar energy.
Despite our achievements, we also recognize that we cannot face the rising challenges in this field all alone. Cooperation on a global and regional level is necessary if we want to decarbonize our economies while maintaining access to reliable and secure sources. The journey towards a fully clean energy system is evidently not going to be easy. Determination and willingness is not enough. Critical raw materials and rare earth elements need to meet the ever-increasing demand for clean energy technologies. As it stands, the current supply levels will be significantly outpaced by the growing demand for clean energy projects.
Recognizing the need for a global dialogue that address these issues, Türkiye has joined the Minerals Security Partnership Forum. We are ready to work with our partners under the MSP, as well as other actors, to secure these resources in the most efficient way and to the benefit of all.
During this transition phase, we must also balance the interest of a carbon-free economy with the interest of an economy that has an increasing demand for access to affordable energy resources. In other words, we will have to be realistic. This is where nuclear energy and natural gas will play a crucial role.
We have reached a point where it is now widely accepted that it will not be possible to meet net-zero goals without nuclear power. Total nuclear energy power, which has been at a plateau level since the late 1980s, is now seeing a global call to triple its power by 2050. The Nuclear Energy Summit held in Brussels last March has highlighted the fact that the international community now sees nuclear power as a vital transition fuel.
Türkiye’s progress in building its first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu shows our resolve to diversify our energy mix. This project will be followed by a second and third. We are currently in talks with interested parties for their realization. Türkiye is also planning to more than triple the use of nuclear energy capacity by 2050.
Alongside the well-established use of conventional reactors, [small modular reactors (SMRs)] will also provide an exciting opportunity for the future. The flexibility and cost savings offered by SMRs make them all the more attractive. They will be pivotal for many countries wanting to add or increase the share of nuclear power into their energy mix. In this respect, Türkiye is actively seeking to work with partner countries and companies to be able to benefit from this new, innovative technology.
Finally, natural gas will remain a vital part of the energy security equation. The importance of natural gas has been underscored by recent global events, the war in Ukraine giving us all a critical wakeup call. Türkiye—located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and the Middle East—is uniquely positioned to support the energy security of its region. As clearly underlined by our flagship projects such as TANAP, our strategic location as a potential hub for natural gas offers many opportunities that could further strengthen the regional energy security. There are, for instance, many untapped resources in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan which may be directed to Türkiye and other European markets.
We need to seize this very crucial window of opportunity, a window which may not be open for very long. However, without designing a common regional vision and strategy, giving coordinated and coherent messages with long-term perspectives, we will not be able to convince the energy companies to take investment decisions and the financial institutions to get onboard for the financing of such projects. We need more than words and political statements. Thus, the future of energy security lies within international cooperation and a strong commitment to innovation for a cleaner future.
Türkiye is determined to working with all parties in Europe and beyond for a secure and clean energy future. Together, we can rise to the challenges of climate change and energy security, ensuring a stable and prosperous world for generations to come. Thank you.
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Further reading
Image: US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt speaks at the Regional Conference on Clean and Secure Energy in Istanbul on October 10, 2024.
