Participation of IENE at VIIMES Inaugural Meeting

Following an invitation to IENE’s chairman by the recently established Vienna International Institute for Middle East Studies (VIIMES), the Institute actively participated in the inaugural meeting of VIIMES which was held online on Monday, June 27. The meeting was held at senior experts level on the subject of “The Ukraine crisis and the geopolitics of energy in the Middle East”.

In addition to Costis Stambolis, Chairman and Executive Director of IENE two other top energy experts had been invited to participate in the inaugural meeting and included Dr. Robin Mills, of Dubai based Qamar Energy and Dr.Carole Nakhle of London based Crystol Energy. The meeting was chaired by Hon. Ambassador Ali Soltanieh, the President of VIIMES (see www.VIIMES.org) Following the three presentations an active discussion ensued with all three speakers responding to specific questions put forward by other participating experts, ambassadors and senior officers from international organisations who had been invited to attend the meeting.

In his presentation Costis Stambolis stressed the rising importance of the Middle East and North African hydrocarbon producing countries at a time when Europe, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and increased hostilities there, has willingly decided to severe all energy links to Russia which until very recently was EU’s key energy supplier. In the aftermath of the Russian-Ukraine war the geopolitical sphere is being redrawn with major implications on the energy scene.One of them being the potential for forging closer energy and economic links between Europe and the broader Middle East. The full presentation of Costis Stambolis can be found here.