The United States will continue its efforts to help Georgia boost its energy security, visiting U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell said at a news conference in Tbilisi after talks with Georgian Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze on March 16.
The U.S. official arrived in Tbilisi on March 15 and also met with Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili. Deputy Secretary Sell planned to meet with President Saakashvili later on March 16. Tbilisi was the Deputy Secretary’s last stop on a trip that included Russia and Ukraine.
The focus of the Deputy Secretary?s visit to Georgia was ongoing bilateral cooperation on energy-related programs, increasing the diversity of energy supplies and suppliers, the expansion of regional cooperation in the energy sector, and the promotion of market transparency and investment in Georgia, according to the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said in his state of the nation address to the Parliament on March 15 that there is increasing international interest in the construction of a trans-Caspian pipeline to transport Central Asian hydrocarbons to Europe via Azerbaijan and Georgia.
During his visit Deputy Secretary of Energy Sell visited the Georgian National Radioactive Waste Repository in Mtskheta, near Tbilisi and welcomed issuing a license by Georgia this week to open the facility to consolidate radioactive sources.
The license will enable consolidation of high-risk radioactive waste sources to secure against theft and misuse.
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