China’s Energy Diplomacy FES Briefing Paper 13| August 2007 Page 5 adopting new technologies and engaging in joint research and development. China’s energy diplomacy is therefore faced with difficult tasks, including the need to maintain the adequacy and stability of energy supply from abroad, to guarantee transportation security, and also to accelerate the improvement of ener­gy technology and boost energy efficiency and environmental protection. Practice “Diverse development” refers to developing energy relationships in diverse directions, forms and fields. International energy relationships function as the foundation and carrier for every international actor engaged in energy activities to realize its energy interests. As a large energy importer, China must undertake steps to resolu­tely develop energy relationships with different actors to ensure that its international energy interests are realized. Until now, a clear and complete Chinese interna­tional energy policy was still lacking, but this does not mean that the Chinese government has no energy diplomacy. With the objective of de­veloping diversified energy relations, the Chinese have accomplished a lot in the practice of energy diplomacy. The followings two examples can gi­ve a general picture. One example is China’s energy cooperation with Central Asian energy suppliers. Central Asia is one of China's core areas of international energy cooperation. Over the course of more than ten years of exploration, experimentation and prac­tice, a pattern has emerged in the gas and oil cooperation between China and Central Asian countries. This pattern is characterized by in­vestment primarily in Kazakhstan, devotion of great efforts to building gas and oil pipelines between China and Kazakhstan, 9 and active par­ticipation in the gas and oil exploitation of other countries, such as Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, etc. With China’s increasing dependence on im­ported energy, it has become imperative for China to"pluralize" gas and oil sources and in­crease the"security" of energy transportation with a view to ensuring state energy security. Under such circumstances, Central Asia’s status in the deployment of China’s energy strategy has been heightened even further. Another example is China’s energy cooperation with India, which, like China, is a large energy 9 The CCPC Oil Pipeline from Kazakhstan to China Xinjiang began to transport oil at the end of 2006. consumer. Though both are energy competitors, China and India have started to cooperate in ex­ploiting oil in Kazakhstan, jointly entering into the Sudan oil exploitation project, thus beco­ming business partners. They have also begun to work together in Iran. In future, China and India should work hand in hand, taking part in inter­national energy exploitation and distribution, di­versifying risks, so as to gain access to a supply of energy larger than that currently available. In June 2005, the ministers of foreign affairs from China, Russia and India held an informal mee­ting in Vladivostok, Russia. They released a Joint Communiqué stressing that the three countries will develop cooperation in the fields of agricul­ture, energy and high technology, and will take this as an opportunity to build a strategic energy triangle. One of the most important motives be­hind India's application for membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is its desire to seek opportunities in cooperation on oil and gas exploitation in Central Asia. In order to understand China’s energy diplomacy, we must place it in the wider context of the international energy regime. 4 The International Energy Regime: Opportunities and Challenges The international energy regime is the institu­tional arrangement governing the relationship among the international energy powers, includ­ing a set of rules and mechanisms of several in­ternational organs for energy activities. The cur­rent international energy regime displays a ba­lance between the forces and interests of key ac­tors of international energy activities, and this is the outcome of the long-term competition bet­ween energy exporters and importers and diffe­rent kinds of international energy organizations. The current international energy regime is for the most part made and led by developed count­ries, with the United States as its leader. Meanwhile, with the growing shortage of oil/gas resources, the increasing rise in status of oil/gas exporters, increased competition and the forging of strategic alliances between different actors, it requires more and more effort to safeguard the rights and interests of energy importers. Efforts to use dialogue and compromise to seek com­mon ground with different forces with different interests are at the same time being stepped up with a view to striking a favorable balance among the different parties involved. 10 10 The Petersburg Declaration reflected a trend of this kind in the present international energy regime,