Eastern European and Caspian Sea states vowed Thursday to support the European Union's "Southern Corridor" plan aimed at reducing the bloc's dependence on Russian energy supplies.
Meeting for an energy conference in Georgia's Black Sea city of Batumi, top officials from 11 countries, including Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Poland and Bulgaria, promised to boost efforts to co-operate on shipping gas from the Caspian Sea to European consumers while bypassing Russia.
But the conference was marred by the fact that national leaders didn't attend as planned. After announcing that numerous heads of state would attend and adopt a charter on energy cooperation, Georgian officials later said the meeting had been downgraded and no national leaders would be attending.
Officials said scheduling problems were to blame and a full summit will be held later.
In a joint statement, conference participants vowed "to unite efforts towards the strengthening of mutual energy co-operation...[and] to promote mutual confidence necessary for the successful implementation of the Southern Corridor."
The EU is hoping energy-rich Caspian Sea states such as Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan will provide supplies for the Southern Corridor plan's key component--the ambitious Nabucco pipeline.
The EUR7.9 billion venture is aimed at feeding 31 billion cubic meters of natural gas each year from the Caspian Sea to Europe starting in 2014. The pipeline is intended to reduce European reliance on Russian gas supplied through Ukraine--a route that has seen chronic interruptions amid payment disputes between Moscow and Kiev.
Russia is instead backing its own rival South Stream project and Wednesday announced it had won Turkey's backing for building a key section of the pipeline in Turkey's portion of the Black Sea.