Energy as a tool for peace building in the South Caucasus

During October, November and December 2024, Dr Marat Terterov, Brussels Energy Club Principal Representative, spoke at the following high-level conferences and seminars which addressed energy and geopolitics in the South Caucasus:

• NATO-Azerbaijan Experts’ Roundtable on Energy and Environmental Security (COP29-MFA preparatory meeting), 28 October 2024;

• 28th Workshop of the Partnership for Peace (PfP) Consortium Study Group, Regional Stability, Connectivity Risks and Opportunities in the South Caucasus, 7-10 November 2024;

• The Academic Conference on the 30th Anniversary of Azerbaijan joining NATO’s Partnership for Peace Program, 26-27 November 2024;

• The Second International Conference, organised by the Western Azerbaijan Community on the complexities for refugees and internally displaced persons to be able to return to their historical homelands, 5-6 December 2024.

Dr Terterov also chaired a number of panels during these sessions at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and NATO. Some of the core messages espoused during Dr Terterov’s interventions at these high-profile public events included the following:

• Economic integration is the way forward for the South Caucasus region in building peace and fostering development. This applies particularly to the energy and infrastructure sectors.

• Economic integration in the South Caucasus can deliver for the region what evolved in North Western Europe during the first decade after World War 2. France, Germany and their regional neighbours joined their economies together and eschewed violence as a means of resolving disputes. Interstate war in North West Europe has taken a backstep into history. This can also take place in the South Caucasus region.

• Powerful external actors – Russia, the EU, the US, China, and the GCC – should support the process of economic integration in the South Caucasus rather than lure Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia into their competing models of governance. This results in geopolitical rivalry and threatens to tear the region apart.

• Geopolitical pivoting – actions which compel smaller states to choose between ‘us and them’ – must stop. The practice is undermining political stability and development in the region, if not beckons the outbreak of war.

• Azerbaijan can serve as the locomotive for regional economic integration. SOCAR and AzerEnerjii are the biggest companies in the South Caucasus.

• Azerbaijan is already the largest foreign investor in the region but it is time for the country to start attracting Armenian diaspora investment into its own economy as a means of building confidence for an enduring peace agreement between Baku and Yerevan

• It is high time for Armenia and Azerbaijan to put an end to the public rhetoric of Eastern Armenia or Western Azerbaijan. The historical ‘blame game’ in the region must stop. Such rhetoric is antagonistic in nature and undermines the two countries’ efforts to reach a lasting peace.

• Once a peace deal is reached and codified into binding legal agreements, Armenians and Azerbaijanis should be fully free to move safely and without discrimination across the entire South Caucasus.

• Freedom of movement is one of the core values (and benefits) for EU citizens. The same should apply to citizens of the South Caucasus countries, who should be able to move across the region without fear or prejudice.

• Once momentum for economic integration gathers pace in the South Caucasus, work should commence towards the establishment of one common South Caucasian Union to which all citizens of the region can belong.

• In the long run, the South Caucasian Union could have equal (if not greater) political weight to the three sovereign states of the region. A new vision for the region’s future needs to emerge.