Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 10
Trend:
Joint energy projects of Azerbaijan and Turkey are of great significance for the world, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev.
He made the remarks addressing the 23rd World Energy Congress in Istanbul, Turkey.
President Aliyev pointed out that holding the 23rd World Energy Congress in Turkey is a very remarkable event.
“This shows Turkey’s role in the world energy policy,” said the president, adding this role is even more increasing and Turkey is taking very important steps to address the energy security issues.
“Turkey’s development and stability is necessary not only for the countries that like it and are friendly to it, but also for the whole world, as today, Turkey is playing a very important role in determining the world energy policy,” President Aliyev said.
“In July of this year, Turkey lived through a difficult test with dignity. Closely uniting around President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish people showed great heroism and prevented the military coup attempt, protected the statehood, protected Turkey’s present and future happiness,” said the president. “We, in Azerbaijan, are proud of you.”
“We are implementing many of our important energy projects jointly with Turkey and these energy projects are of great significance for the world,” Ilham Aliyev added.
The president pointed out that today the Southern Gas Corridor is among the largest energy projects all over the world.
“The investment capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor is $45 billion. It consists of four projects. One of them is TANAP and the others are the South Caucasus Pipeline, which brings our gas from Azerbaijan to the Turkish border – the Turkey-Greece and Turkey-Georgia borders, then there is the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline and the development of the Shah Deniz field,” said President Aliyev.
He said that today the Southern Gas Corridor project is being implemented successfully.
“Azerbaijan and Turkey are showing their leadership qualities in this project’s implementation and this is a very important project for the energy security,” Ilham Aliyev said. “Energy security is the national security issue of every state.”
“Today, countries are trying to bring their natural resources to world markets through various ways, while the countries which are not rich in natural resources are trying to attract new resources from various places,” according to the president.
“Azerbaijan has taken important steps in this sphere and it is bringing both oil and gas to world markets through multi-faceted diversification,” he added.
Seven countries have already joined the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project and more countries can join this important project in the future, according to President Aliyev.
“The work done in this sphere is strengthening our country, because, as I mentioned, it is only 25 years that we have lived as an independent state. In the first years, the major part of our economy was dependent on oil and gas,” said the president. “But today, by investing oil and gas revenues in other spheres of economy, we make our country’s development sustainable. Currently, oil and gas account for only 30 percent of our economy.”
President Aliyev said the energy security issues should also be addressed in the future.
“The countries rich in natural resources, transit and consumer countries should work as one team. Any groundless rivalry should be prevented and there should be a healthy competition. There should be more understanding between oil and gas producing and exporting countries,” he added.
“Our energy policy has enabled us to make investments in foreign countries,” the president said. “During the first years of independence, we were dependent on foreign investments. But today, we make big investments in other countries. The volume of the investments made and to be made by us in brotherly Turkey is $20 billion. This strengthens our economy, Turkey’s economy and our unity.”
“Today, when discussing the world energy and energy security issues, it is impossible not to take into account Turkey and Azerbaijan, because, we already have both natural resources, wide geography and diversified transportation infrastructures. We have created this and we establish our collaboration with all countries based on equality, mutual benefits and interests,” said the president.
“Today, we are very glad that Turkey is moving forward successfully and confidently,” President Aliyev added.
Reminding that Turkey is a member of G20, President Aliyev said that in order to describe the Turkish-Azerbaijani relations, it is enough to mention that during the G20 summit in Antalya in November last year, Turkey had a right to invite a non-member country, and it invited Azerbaijan.
“I once again express gratitude to you. This is my fourth visit to Turkey this year. My dear brother Recep Tayyip Erdogan also pays visits to Azerbaijan. Our friendship, our unity and our brotherhood is permanent, eternal and indestructible,” Ilham Aliyev said.