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TRACECA may refuse to cooperate with European Commission

Economy Materials 13 August 2015 18:26 (UTC +04:00)
The member countries of TRACECA transport corridor may change the partner, if the European Commission doesn’t increase interest for the corridor

Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 13

By Azad Hasanli - Trend:

The member countries of TRACECA transport corridor may change the partner, if the European Commission doesn't increase interest for the corridor, TRACECA National Secretary in Azerbaijan Akif Mustafayev told Trend.

"The European Commission has recently weakened its attention to TRACECA," he said. "It started after the launch of the Eastern Partnership program, which includes Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova and Ukraine. We spoke with representatives of the European Commission on this subject and pointed out that if they aren't interested in cooperation, we will work with the East, that is, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Asian Development Bank, China, Japan, etc. However, in response to it, the European Commission always replies that TRACECA is a priority and a strategic program for them, but we don't see it in practice."

Mustafayev said that the only thing that the European Commission has recently dealt with in the framework of TRACECA, is the realization of technical projects.

"Every year, the European Commission implemented five or six technical projects relating to, for example, training," said the secretary. "Of course, if the European Commission continues to pay little attention to TRACECA, there won't be negative effects for the transport corridor because its work depends not on the European Commission but on the participating countries. So far, no member country of TRACECA stated about the decrease of interest in it, which shows the interest for the program and the development of the Europe-Caucasus-Asia corridor."

TRACECA is an international cooperation program in the field of transport between the EU and partner countries in Eastern Europe, South Caucasus and Central Asia. The organization has a permanent secretariat in Baku.

TRACECA member states are Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Iran.

Edited by CN

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