NATO’s New Energy Security Role in Azerbaijan: Balancing the Interest between West and Russia

Özet

Considering the contemporary developments in the international relations, the Azerbaijan’s relations with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) are of great significance. Due to the rich oil and gasreserves and Azerbaijan’s geostrategic importance as an energy crossroad between Europe and Asia, thecountry has always been attractive for many actors after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Not only theneighboring countries Turkey, Iran and Central Asian countries, but also the United States, EuropeanUnion (EU) and China. Therefore, Azerbaijan tries to gain the maximum from the geostrategicposition, but at the same time the country must play carefully in the foreign policy creation. Azerbaijanis committed to the cooperation with the Western countries, particularly with NATO alliance and theEU, to downturn the Russian influence. Stronger cooperation with NATO could also mean strongercooperation with the EU member states. On the other hand, the energy security is becoming anincreasingly important issue in the domain of energy. One of the key tasks of the national security ofAzerbaijan is ensuring the security of energy corridors and the transportation of the energy resources.The critical energy infrastructure in Azerbaijan is not only important to the country itself, but also toEU and NATO. How does access to and transit of energy sources from the Caspian Region influenceNATO-Azerbaijani relationship? The energy supply map is much internationalized, and the protectionof critical energy infrastructure goes beyond the national level. This requires from Azerbaijan to seekfor regional cooperation and stable regional security, which could be assisted by NATO. The Alliancesupported an active role for NATO in ensuring the security of energy supplies for the allies, but alsothey supported the assistance in the energy security for the partner states. Most EU member statesare also members of NATO, and energy security may emerge as an issue handled in a joint initiativeby these two organizations. This paper discusses the Azerbaijani critical energy infrastructure, andNATO’s possible role in the protection of the energy infrastructure. Also, the paper discussed NATO’sreasons for being involved in the energy security, and how NATO’s energy security evolved from RigaSummit Declaration in 2006 to Warsaw Summit Communiqu. in 2016. More importantly, this paper will answer to what extent the changes in NATO’s security policy affects Azerbaijan.