Amos Hochstein

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias is meeting on Friday with the U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs, Amos J. Hochstein. The meeting will take place at the Foreign ministry at 10.30 a.m.

By Sotiris Sideris

The government is keen to hear US proposals regarding Greece?s role in Washington?s energy strategy, especially the Americans? counterproposal to the Russian-sponsored Turkish Stream pipeline and its extension to Greece, when Amos Hochstein, the State Department?s Coordinator on International Energy Affairs, visits Athens on Friday.

Russia is using natural gas as a political tool and the United States needs to know if it is ?on the same page? with Turkey regarding Russia?s actions, a top U.S. energy envoy has said.

?What Europe desperately needs is the diversification of resources,? Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs Amos Hochstein told Hürriyet in a recent interview.

U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein urged southeast European states to build new gas links and focus on smaller projects to curb reliance on supplies from Russia, rather than blockbuster pipeline deals.

Bulgaria, a country playing a "central role in Europe's emerging energy picture", is becoming "the latest wishbone in the struggle between Moscow's efforts to to assert its energy dominance over Europe and the West's efforts to cage that gassy bear," according to Foreign Policy.

The United States is working closely with the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government to clamp down on oil smuggling in a bid to cut off a key source of funding for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a senior U.S. official said on Oct. 30.