Central and East European leaders call for diverse energy flows to Europe

Central and East European leaders voiced anxiety on Thursday over Russia's use of its massive energy resources to enforce its foreign policy goals and called for efforts to diversify their sources supply. Unjust manipulation or interruption of energy supplies is as much a security threat as is military action," Czech Deputy Prime Minister for European Affairs Alexandr Vondra said at a conference in Vilnius involving the presidents of six countries. Participants backed closer cooperation between Europe, the United States, the Caspian and the Black Sea regions to bring energy from Central Asia and the South Caucasus to Europe. They agreed this was "crucial for reliable and diverse energy flows into the European Union". Russia is the source of a quarter of Europe's gas.