Lugar lauds Clinton support for energy coordinator, Nabucco pipeline
US Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton made two important energy security commitments as she testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 20, ranking minority member Richard D. Lugar (R-Ind.) said.
"U.S. national security demands attention to energy at the highest levels of our diplomacy. Secretary Clinton understands this reality, and her commitments to naming a strong international energy coordinator and fully supporting the Nabucco pipeline project demonstrate that she intends to back her words with concrete action," Lugar said following the hearing on the US Department of State's fiscal 2010 budget request.
In her opening statement, Clinton said that the proposed budget would let the State Department and US Agency for International Development hire more career diplomats and other employees to fulfill US President Barack H. Obama's promise to expand the US Foreign Service by 25%.
"We are focusing on three priorities: first, urgent challenges and regions of concern, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, Iraq, and the Middle East; second, transnational challenges; and third, development assistance," she told the committee.
She included energy security among US transnational concerns. "These issues require us to develop new forms of diplomatic engagement. We cannot send a special envoy to negotiate with a pandemic, call a summit with carbon dioxide, or sever relations with the global financial crisis. By supporting the department's use of new tools and strategies, the president's budget will enable us to confront the threats and seize the opportunities of our interconnected world," Clinton said.
Lugar said that Clinton announced the imminent appointment of a high-level international energy coordinator at the State Department whose responsibilities would include ensuring that energy security receives constant attention in US diplomatic activity. The position was established by legislation Lugar first offered a year earlier under the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, the senator said.
He said that Clinton also affirmed US priority support for the Nabucco pipeline project, which would bring natural gas from the Caspian Basin to European markets through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. Clinton also appointed Richard L. Morningstar special envoy for Eurasian energy on April 20 and said at the hearing that she was personally engaged on the Nabucco pipeline project.
Commending recent political agreement on the project, Lugar said a week earlier that energy security is essential for the national security of every country. "Nabucco will help safeguard the independence and prosperity of each nation involved. Importing and exporting nations alike will benefit when no one country monopolizes supply routes," he maintained.
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