The New Russian Initiative on Energy Transit - Should it replace the Energy Charter Treaty?
Published 14 July 2014
Introduction
This article is being written at a time when the issue of energy security has become critical in the quest to attain sustainable development for the world. The drive to guarantee secure sources of energy has encountered a lot of challenges. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is one of the legal solutions to the challenges. Even at that, the ECT itself is faced with severe challenges which have made some to query its relevance.
This research will look at some of the salient provisions of the ECT and compare them with the provisions of the proposed Russian legal framework on energy cooperation and conclude on whether there is a need for the latter. Has the ECT failed to meet desired expectations in Eurasian relations? Is there a need for a new international treaty on energy in view of the proposal by President Medvedev in April 2009 for a new legal framework for energy cooperation? No law is perfect, and there is always room for amendments and additions to conventions and treatises. As such, the ECT cannot be an exception and may not be condemned for being an imperfect treaty.
Efforts to ensure international energy security, especially in Euro-Russian relations can be made within the framework of the modernization process of the ECT without the need to resort to an entirely new and time-consuming international treaty on energy trade and investments.