“Azerbaijan has extensive offshore oil reserves on the Caspian Sea and is an important link in the energy trade between central Asia and Europe,” said the article. “US companies have invested substantially in developing the oil and natural gas industry in the Caspian Sea.”
Both the Bush and Obama administrations have treated the stable and expanded flow of energy from this region as vital to the US geopolitical interests, Ramani said in his article, adding that stable Caspian Sea energy trade dilutes Europe’s dependence on Russian gas and restricts Iranian influence, thereby strengthening US allies relative to its long-standing adversaries.
In 2008, the Republican Senator Richard Lugar, then head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee described Azerbaijan as the US sole friend on the Caspian basin, a friend valuable as an oil supplier to US allies, according to the article. Lugar also expressed the need for the US to appoint a special representative tasked with preserving long-term US interests in the Caspian Sea, Ramani added in his article.
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