Co-Operative Strategies for Energy Security

The twenty-first century is witnessing certain key developments on the energy scene. Even as the centre of gravity of global energy markets is shifting rapidly and resolutely to the Asian continent. Russia is emerging as a formidable petro-state. There is a natural synergy between resource-rich Russia and the energy-thirsty economies of China and India. Geographically, the three together constitute a massive and contiguous land mass, home to a third of the global population and rich in natural as well as human resources. This fortuitous configuration opens up possibilities for forging a new regional identity, based on shared interests and mutually beneficial cooperation. Energy cooperation leads the list of such possibilities. This paper identifies potential areas of energy cooperation among the three countries of the region, namely, Russia, China and India, and in doing so, adopts an approach that goes beyond the conventional, to examine prospects that are at once specific, immediate and feasible.