2016-08-31
Our South Caucasus logistic corridor will enable us to attract large volume cargo; in this case we will need to act in unison with Azerbaijan, including conducting joint visits to China and India to start negotiations on launching much larger scale transit through our region, - Prime Minister of Georgia Giorgi Kvirikashvili noted in his conversation with the reporters.
Head of the Government summed up his official visit to Azerbaijan and noted that many aspects of bilateral relations were discussed both with President Aliyev and Prime Minister Rasizade. According to Giorgi Kvirikashvili, Georgia and Azerbaijan have established important strategic relations, whereas people share centuries of friendship.
"At the same time, we have developed regional economic projects of great importance, including the Southern Gas Corridor, or so called South Caucasus Gas Corridor, implementation of which we discussed. We also discussed implementation process of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project. We discussed an issue introducing a unified tariff system within our logistic corridor. We also discussed possibilities of adding new cargo, including those from China and India," - Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated.
According to the Prime Minister, in the process of implementation of similar kinds of projects, stability is particularly important. Respective issue was one of the conversation topics during the meetings held today. Attention was paid to infrastructural modernization as well, since, according to Giorgi Kvirikashvili turning a country into an attractive transit location would be impossible without high-quality infrastructure. "We had quite a lengthy meeting with the President and before that - the Prime Minister in both face-to-face and wide formats," - Giorgi Kvirikashvili noted.
Head of the Government also responded the question concerning possible threat posed to Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline project by the ongoing Russia-Turkey negotiations on the stream pipeline. According to Giorgi Kvirikashvili, neither Trans Anatolian, nor Trans Adriatic pipelines are threatened by this fact, since relevant contract covering construction of infrastructure and the volumes of delivered gas has already been agreed upon.
"Every step, starting from extraction and ending with realization has been settled. Nothing can change this picture," - Prime Minister noted.
As for the gas pipeline connecting Turkey and Russia, the Prime Minister indicated that respective issue is not completely ascertained yet. "We will observe future development of negotiations between Russia and Turkey. At this point, it is impossible to give specific prognosis," - Giorgi Kvirikashvili noted.
Prime Minister's Press Office