In an international context marked by the reconfiguration of the global energy order and geopolitical tensions, H.E. the President of the Republic, Head of State and Government, Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, participated this Tuesday noon at the VIII Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries, held at the Moscow International Trade Centre under the chairmanship of the Russian Federation.
The Forum of Gas Exporting Countries (GECF), founded in 2001 in Tehran (Islamic Republic of Iran) and elevated to the rank of an international organization in 2008, brings together twelve member States: Russia, Iran, Qatar, Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Nigeria, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela. These countries hold 70 per cent of the world’s proven gas reserves, 38 per cent of world production and 47 per cent of LNG exports. It is the de facto equivalent of OPEC for gas.
The presence of Equatorial Guinea, the second largest Spanish-speaking member of the cartel and the only member of Central Africa, is strategic.
High-level Energy Diplomacy Programme:
At the plenary session chaired by H.E. Vladimir Putin, the Head of State of Equatorial Guinea defended three cardinal principles of his country’s foreign policy:
1. Energy sovereignty as a pillar of national sovereignty: Equatorial Guinea rejects any attempt to politicize the gas market and defends the inalienable right of producing peoples to set fair, stable and predictable prices free from unilateral sanctions and extraterritorial taxation.
2. Local industrialization and real technology transfer: The Chief Executive of Equatorial Guinea demands that the gas no longer be exported to the raw state. It proposes the creation of a Gas Industrialization Fund, with a technology hub in Punta Europa, Malabo province, to transform gas into fertilizer, methanol and electricity on African soil.
3. Safe Energy Routes: Equatorial Guinea, as guardian of the Gulf of Guinea – through which 30% of the oil and gas arriving in Europe is transported – has proposed a joint maritime security pact to protect critical infrastructure against piracy and sabotage.
At the end of the summit, as officially announced by the Kremlin through its diplomatic adviser, Yuri Ouchakov, His Excellency Vladimir Putin will hold five bilateral meetings in camera. One of them will take place with His Excellency Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.
This highly symbolic meeting raises the bilateral relationship to the level of a global strategic partnership.
On the table:
-The entry of Gazprom and Rosatom into the second phase of development of the Alen field and the Malabo floating nuclear power plant project.
-The signing of a reciprocal investment protection agreement and exemption from double taxation.
– Mutual support to the UN: Russia supports Equatorial Guinea’s position on Security Council reform and the administration of the city of La Paz reaffirms its vote against anti-Russian sanctions.
This meeting between the two leaders is the prelude to the Third Russia-Africa Summit, to be held on 28 and 29 October at the Rossiya National Centre, where Equatorial Guinea, at Putin’s personal invitation launched on 30 September, will present its vision of Africa as a subject and not as an object of global geopolitics.
Text: María Jesús Nsang
Photos : Miguel Ángel Andjimi
(Presidential Press Team)
Equatorial Guinea Information and Press Office