Azerbaijan envoy appreciates relations with Turkmenistan
By Aynur Jafarova
Friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are a stabilizing factor for the Caspian, Caucasus and Central Asia regions, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Turkmenistan Vahdat Sultanzade said in a statement published in Turkmen media on the occasion of May 28, Azerbaijan's Republic Day.
According to Sultanzade, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan became the initiators of several important political and economic projects and this tradition continues at present. All these projects and initiatives were successful, the statement says.
Sultanzade noted that mutual support for international initiatives and close cooperation within international organizations are inherent to the relations between independent Azerbaijan and independent and neutral Turkmenistan.
"This factor also promotes the comprehensive expansion of bilateral interstate cooperation. Azerbaijani-Turkmen relations have always been of good-neighborly and brotherly nature," the ambassador's statement says.
The Azerbaijani envoy also noted that the two nations are linked with geographic and ethnic proximity, inviolable historical ties, the commonality of culture, traditions, customs, languages and religion.
The two countries connect the East and West with transport corridors, reviving the Great Silk Road, he said.
The statement further reads that Azerbaijan is one of the powerful energy countries in the world. Last year Azerbaijan initiated the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline (TANAP) project, which has gained great support of the world's leading countries.
The TANAP project envisages construction of a pipeline from the eastern border of Turkey to the country's western border to supply gas from Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea to Europe through Turkey. Initial capacity of the pipeline is expected to be 16 billion cubic meters per year. Around 6 billion cubic meters will be delivered to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.
Two Caspian littoral countries Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan are interested in the use of alternative routes for the transportation of energy resources of the Caspian region to Europe.
Earlier Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov said that a project on supplying Turkmen gas to Europe is quite realistic and Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and the European Union (EU) are doing substantive work in a trilateral format to draft a document on main principles of gas supply from the Caspian region to Europe.
There are no direct arrangements yet for the implementation of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline project aimed at the gas supply to the European market.
The Trans-Caspian Gas Pipeline running around 300 kilometers will be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, where it will be linked to the Southern Gas Corridor. The pipeline's capacity is 30-40 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
Talks on the construction of the Trans-Caspian pipeline between Turkmenistan, the EU and other countries have been held since the late 1990s. The negotiations intensified after the EU issued a mandate to start negotiations on the preparation of an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans-Caspian project in September 2011.