Azerbaijan, Baku, Jan. 8 / Trend H.Valiyev /
Protocol officially confirming the presidency of Azerbaijan in the Trans-Asia-Europe project (TAE) has been signed, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies of Azerbaijan informed Trend on Tuesday.
As reported by the ministry, project participants unanimously expressed support for Azerbaijan's presidency. Azerbaijan's chairmanship in the project is considered for the 2013-15 period. After that the presidency passes to the Ukraine.
The Azerbaijani side stated that during its presidency, all necessary efforts aimed at further improvement of the effectiveness of the TAE considering the ever-increasing demands of globalisation will be made.
The question of Azerbaijan's chairmanship in the TAE project was considered within the 21st meeting of the committee on project management held on November 7-8, 2012 in Baku. The meeting was attended by representatives of Ukrainian national operator Ukrtelecom, the German company T-systems (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) and Georgian company FopNet.
Project participants also discussed some aspects of the future TAE project at the meeting.
Construction of the Azerbaijani segment of the cable line has been completed.
Implementation of the TAE project was agreed by a tripartite protocol signed on October 21, 1999 between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. In December of the same year construction began in the Azerbaijani segment of TAE. In 2001, the construction of the onshore section of the segment was completed and channels of communication between Baku and Tbilisi were transferred to a fibre-optic TAE highway.
Commissioning of the fibre-optic highway allowed the establishment of a direct line between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, Russia, and Ukraine.