Azerbaijan, Baku, May 24 / Trend, E.Ismayilov /
The U.S. would be happy to see the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline to be implemented, U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Richard Morningstar told journalists on Friday.
However, he said that ultimately it has to be an agreement between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
Morningstar noted that it is up to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to make a decision in this regard and whether they can reach an agreement with the EU to move forward.
"If Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan agree with the EU to build the pipeline, they can do so, because the pipeline will go through the waters that will only be either Turkmen waters or Azerbaijani waters," he said.
The Trans-Caspian gas pipeline is planned to be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to the Azerbaijani coast. The pipeline's length will hit about 300 kilometers.
Negotiations on the construction of the pipeline between Turkmenistan, the EU and other countries have been held since the late 1990s.
The negotiation process has been intensified after the European Union delivered 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. However, Iran and Russia later expressed their negative attitude towards the project. Tehran and Moscow think the pipeline construction may damage the Caspian Sea's ecology.