US stations regional energy officer at Nicosia embassy

CYPRUS has been chosen as the headquarters for the US State Department’s regional  officer for energy issues in South Europe and North Africa.

Karen Enstrom, an official of the State Department’s newly established Bureau of Energy Resources (ENR), will use the US Embassy in Cyprus as her headquarters for the diplomatic involvement of the US in energy developments in the Mediterranean.  

According to the relevant statement, the creation of the Bureau reflects the emphasis the US places on energy in the region.

The Bureau was set up in November 2011, and is headed by former US Ambassador to Mexico and Ukraine, Carlos Pascual, who is now the State Department’s Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs.

Enstrom’s mission will be to help facilitate and manage geopolitical developments with regard to energy by enhancing diplomatic relations with the main energy producers and consumers in the region and by enhancing US access to energy in developing countries.

She will also be expected to boost the energy market forces by differentiating the current policies concerning alternative energy, electricity and energy development.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.