Azernews.Az

Prime Minister of Greece Antonis Samaras will pay a one-day visit to Azerbaijan on May 19.
The main topic of talks with the Azerbaijani government will be ensuring security of the TAP pipeline deal, Greek media outlets reported.

According to the report, Samaras will arrive in Baku following his trip to China on May 14-18.

In late April, Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos and his deputy Dimitris Kourkoulas visited Baku. During the visit they met with Azerbaijani leadership. Later Avramopoulos announced an intention to establish a bilateral council on cooperation at a high level with participation of the ministries with common interests.

The talks mainly concerned energy, the TAP pipeline and the Nabucco West pipeline.

Two pipelines, Nabucco West and TAP, are currently competing over transportation of Azerbaijani gas to European markets. The gas which will be produced within the second stage of developing Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz gas condensate field is considered as the main source for these pipeline projects.

Nabucco West and TAP are part of the Southern Gas Corridor, which is one of the European Union's priority energy projects. The Southern Gas Corridor aims at diversifying the routes and sources of energy supply, thereby increasing secure delivery.

The Shah Deniz consortium is considering both TAP and Nabucco West. The consortium will make its final decision on the pipeline route in June and a final investment decision by October 2013.