Remarks to the East Macedonia and Thrace Forum

A/S Pyatt: Kalispera, good afternoon. I’m so glad to be able to join the second East Macedonia and Thrace Forum. And let me start by offering huge congratulations to Simeone and the rest of the organizers for what I understand is a stellar turnout from across Greece.

I want to recognize all the Ministers who are there or have participated including Minister Avgenakis, Minister Dendias, Minister Gerapetritis, Minister Kairidis, Minister Skrekas, Minister Skylakakis, Minister Staikouras, Minister Triantopoulus, Minister Voultepsi, Minister Zacharaki, Governor Topsidis and Mayor Zampoukis. And I sure hope I didn’t leave anyone out. I worked so closely with so many of you in my previous capacity as Ambassador in Athens, so I’m delighted that you’re all there in Alexandroupoli.

But I also want to say how much of a pleasure it is for me to be able to be with you in my current responsibilities as the Biden administration’s Senior Global Energy Diplomat and to talk a little bit about the key contributions that Eastern Macedonia and Thrace is making to the promotion of regional energy security, regional energy interdependence and regional energy transition.

I’m also thrilled to be speaking on this topic so soon after the Alexandroupoli FSRU came online using American LNG as its test cargo.

We have a huge amount of work to do still in the energy sphere, but we also need to recognize and celebrate our shared accomplishments. So I would offer congratulations to everyone who helped this long-sought project finally to become a reality and many of you who are in the room today.

As Ambassador in Athens I put a huge priority on our bilateral energy relationship including our important efforts focused in Alexandroupoli and in Northern Greece. The work done in this region in recent years has greatly strengthened Greece’s energy security overall, and importantly from a US perspective has allowed Athens to assume an even greater regional leadership role on energy issues.

Eastern Macedonia and Thrace as a region, Greece as a valued NATO ally, and Southeastern Europe as an energy crossroads remain absolute priorities for me and my team in the Bureau of Energy Resources.

Before talking about the more recent developments I think it’s important to start with a reminder of just how foundational the Southern Gas Corridor and the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, or the IGB, are to Southeastern Europe These projects were not just physical pipelines and new sources of gas. They literally helped unlock the entire region and radically transformed the energy landscape in ways we are still coming to appreciate and understand.

I remember so well my very last visit to the region as Ambassador in May 2022, just after Gazprom had completely cut off supplies to Bulgaria. This cutoff left the country in extraordinary peril and confirmed that Putin’s Russia should not and cannot ever be considered a reliable supplier of energy in any form under any circumstances. As neighbors and allies rallied in 2022 to help quickly supply Sofia with alternative gas and to defeat Putin’s attempt to weaponize energy, the IGB proved indispensable and confirmed that its original design was visionary in ways that seem obvious in hindsight.

We are continuing our efforts to degrade Russia’s future energy production and export capacities through sanctions, ensuring that Russia is never again in a position to use its energy resources for coercive purposes.

Our sanctions designations have targeted entities involved in expanding Russia’s energy capabilities including those developing new projects meant to strengthen its global energy influence like the Arctic LNG 2 Liquefaction Facilities.

Putin’s brutal war against Ukraine has transformed the energy map of Southeastern Europe and Greece is at the crossroads of that — a point that was reinforced last week in Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ courageous visit to Odesa.

With the Alexandroupoli FSRU online, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace further moves itself to the center of Greece’s energy security efforts as the country’s LNG import capacity has essentially doubled overnight. Greek LNG import capacity and regassification capacity remains absolutely vital for the region and forms the basis for the next visionary project in the region’s energy development — the Vertical Corridor. Using existing infrastructure from Greece up to Ukraine, the Vertical Corridor will allow LNG imported through Greece to fill the vast storage tanks in Ukraine, providing a new source of gas for Central Europe and the Western Balkans, and helping to reduce price volatility along the way. It will also be crucial in supporting the EU’s intention to fully decouple from Russian gas by 2027.

Much like the IGB and Alexandroupoli FSRU, the Vertical Corridor will one day be seen as a project whose goal of south-north connectivity is so obvious that the needed investment and political commitment which must start today is scarcely debatable.

Ambassador Tsunis and his team in Athens as well as my team here in Washington are keenly focused on how we can help to advance this project. The importance of gas interconnectors to the region applies even more to electricity interconnectors and I’m excited to hear of recent efforts by Greece, Bulgaria and Romania to further connect their electricity systems, paving the way for maximizing their ambitious plans for expanded renewable generation capacity.

Electricity interconnectors offer the prospect of more flexibility, more power sources, more clean energy coming into the grid, and more reliable and affordable energy for consumers. At COP28 in Dubai I had the opportunity to spend some time with Deputy Minister Sdoukou and EU Director General for Energy Ditte Jorgensen at the beautiful Greek Pavilion where we together highlighted the tremendous changes in Greece’s energy sector and the increasing importance of energy to our overall relationships.

One of the great sources of satisfaction for me at that event was to hear how Director General Jorgensen praised Greece’s extraordinary record in energy transition and the growing renewables which demonstrate the leadership that Greece is providing across the European Union.

Among Greece’s bountiful renewable energy resources, the Aegean ranks high with some of the top consistent year-round wind velocities anywhere in Europe. It’s not an accident, therefore, that Alexandroupoli is the site of Greece’s first offshore wind pilot program — something the United States strongly supports. Offshore wind is a tremendous opportunity not only for Greece but for Europe as a whole as Greece lays the foundations to export its clean energy northward.

Creating a secure, reliable supply chain for offshore wind equipment is critical giving European and US plans for the sector as pillar for achieving our climate goals.

And in that regard I’m incredibly excited about the complementary plans for the Elefsina Shipyard and the work that has been done there by our Development Finance Corporation to feed into the growth of an offshore wind supply chain in Greece.

As we work together on the energy transition Greece, Europe and the United States must not replace an era of dependence on Russian fossil fuel for an era of dependence on the PRC for clean technology inputs. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the solar industry in the offshore wind supply chain and become overly dependent on a single country for supply.

To conclude, the tremendous strides we’ve seen in Southeast Europe’s energy security thanks to the efforts there in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, are both a cause for well-deserved celebration and also a reminder that we cannot rest on our laurels.

Energy is an area where inertia eventually erodes even the most stable of foundations, but where vision, commitment and fortitude can reap untold and often unforeseeable rewards.

Eastern Macedonia and Thrace has experienced both extremes and I’m confident that all of us share a strong desire to ensure that this latter model for success which we see today remains the standard for the region.

Thank you again for the opportunity to speak at this important event, and I so look forward to joining you in person sometime in the near future.

Efcharisto poli.