ST. PETERSBURG, December 13. /TASS/. An energy club of SCO and BRICS member countries could help to avert energy crises in the future, Shamil Yenikeyev, a professor at the international relations department of Higher School of Economics, said on Tuesday.
The expert said in a speech at the 13th Asian Conference held by the Valdai International Discussion Club that Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2006 voiced the idea of establishing an energy club of SCO member countries. According to Yenikeyev, this idea could be expanded to combine SCO and BRICS members into one club.
"Thus, we will bring together not only the largest producers, but also consumers of energy resources. It will of course have such energy participants as Russia and Saudi Arabia and, representing major consumers, China and India. It’s necessary primarily in order to synchronize the energy strategies of consuming and producing countries, in order to avoid future crises of both energy and products, which may be caused by a halt of energy supplies or some related problems," the analyst said.
In addition, the club could develop new technological rules and standards in the field of energy.
"Essentially, this SCO-BRICS energy club can become not a counterweight to the countries of the collective West, but a new platform for promoting some new interesting approaches not only for member countries of this club, but for the countries of the global South, so to speak, a pioneer in promoting development in this area," Yenikeyev said.
The SCO set up an Energy Club in 2014 at the initiative of Russia. It’s a platform for discussing the energy strategies of member countries from the standpoint of their harmonization and the development of proposals to improve energy security. The club brings together representatives of government agencies, large businesses and research centers working in the energy industry.