"The intent of all of them is to prevent Iran from exporting hydrocarbons to Europe and to expel Russia entirely from its previous contracts to provide Europe with natural gas and Caspian oil. Russia currently supplies the European Union with 30 percent of its gas, but the West - the U.S. and its EU allies - is well on its way to replacing Russian oil and gas with supplies from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan via Azerbaijan and from Iraq and North Africa through Turkey where all of the three pipelines [Nabucco, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum] end." [18]
In addition to transforming Azerbaijan and Georgia into U.S. and NATO outposts in the South Caucasus and on the Caspian Sea - Azerbaijan borders both Iran and Russia and Georgia borders Russia - Washington and its North Atlantic military bloc are increasing military ties with the other Caspian coastal states, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.
The expanding American and NATO role in Central and South Asia - in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - is inextricably connected with NATO nations' Eurasian energy strategies.
In 2008 Matthew Bryza, then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, delivered an address which contained these assertions:
"The East-West Corridor we had been building from Turkey and the Black Sea through Georgia and Azerbaijan and across the Caspian became the strategic air corridor, and the lifeline, into Afghanistan allowing the United States and our coalition partners to conduct Operation Enduring Freedom."
"Our goal is to develop a 'Southern Corridor' of energy infrastructure to transport Caspian and Iraqi oil and gas to Turkey and Europe. The Turkey-Greece-Italy (TGI) and Nabucco natural gas pipelines are key elements of the Southern Corridor."
"Potential gas supplies in Turkmenistan and Iraq can provide the crucial additional volumes beyond those in Azerbaijan to realize the Southern Corridor.
"Washington and [Turkey] are working together with Baghdad to help Iraq develop its own large natural gas reserves for both domestic consumption and for export to Turkey and the EU." [19]
The U.S. and Britain led NATO Partnership for Peace military exercises in Kazakhstan, from where the West plans to construct a pipeline under the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, last August, and the country has recently agreed to allow overflights to the U.S. and NATO for the war in Afghanistan. [20]
In August it was disclosed that U.S. military equipment is being transferred from Iraq to Afghanistan "via Turkey, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan." [21]
Despite its formal status of neutrality, Turkmenistan has allowed the transit of American and NATO "armored vehicles, combat helicopters and crates of ammunition" to the Afghanistan-Pakistan war theater.
In addition, the U.S. "has gained access to use almost all the military airfields of Turkmenistan, including the airport in Nebit-Dag near the Iranian border" and "An American military contingent is located in Ashgabat to oversee the operations related to refueling of military airplanes. NATO is also trying to open up a land corridor to bring freight by road and rail...." [22]
The second station of the soon-to-be-launched Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline is Herat, the capital city of the Afghan province of the same name which borders eastern Iran.
From there it will head to Kandahar, where the U.S. and NATO have been conducting what the Western press refers to as the "battle for Kandahar" since August in an attempt to clear the area of Taliban fighters and sympathizers.
The pipeline will then proceed to Quetta, the capital of Balochistan.
The U.S. and NATO have expanded the Afghan war into Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and increasingly into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It has also launched attacks inside Balochistan and has pressured the Pakistani government to permit them to conduct full-scale military operations in the province.
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