With a new letter to State Departmentthe expatriate MPs Gas Bilirakis and Nicole Malliotaki reject US State Department allegations about gas pipeline EastMed. The two lawmakers had sent a letter on January 21st expressing their opposition to withdrawing diplomatic support for the pipeline project. The State DepartmentHowever, he argued that there was no question of a change of attitude, as the US had never officially or financially supported the pipeline.
In their new response, the two lawmakers expressed the assessment that Washington had diplomatically backed the EastMed pipeline.
To support this position, they list a number of public statements made by the State Department in the past that include:
The Joint Declaration of 7 October 2019 in the Second US-Greece Strategic Dialogue, which stated that “the governments of Greece and the United States have recognized the potential of the proposed EastMed gas pipeline to contribute to energy security and energy diversification. springs and routes in the Eastern Mediterranean “.
The Joint Statement of 28 September 2020 on the High Level Review of the US-Greece Strategic Dialogue stated that “the United States and Greece have welcomed the completion of the Greek section of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline and look forward to discussing the forthcoming Strategic Dialogue. their mutual support in the interconnection of Greece with Bulgaria, in the project of the floating natural gas regasification unit in Alexandroupolis, in the privatization of the underground gas storage unit in Kavala, in the project of the interconnection of Greece-Northern Macedonia, and other commercial projects. could include the EastMed pipeline. “
In addition, the two lawmakers point out that section 203 of the EastMed Act provides support for the pipeline and that many energy diplomacy officials during the Trump administration had moved in that direction.
Finally, the two lawmakers are requesting a one-on-one meeting with Amos Hokstein, a senior State Department official on energy security, which will be attended by EastMed Act drafters in the House of Representatives (Ted Deutch and David). Cicilline) to learn about the Biden government’s energy policy in the Eastern Mediterranean.
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