Baku, Azerbaijan, March 7
By Seba Aghayeva - Trend:
Azerbaijan and Georgia plan to intensify the strategic partnership, said Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
He made the remarks at a briefing held after the meeting with his Georgian counterpart Mikheil Janelidze in Baku March 7.
Mammadyarov noted that they discussed the prospects for developing and intensifying the strategic partnership, as well as the cooperation in energy and transportation sectors.
"Azerbaijan highly appreciates the cooperation with Georgia within the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project, the implementation of which will expand our cooperation in the transportation sector," said the Azerbaijani FM.
He also noted that the parties agreed to hold the next meeting of the border delimitation commission.
"We have invited Georgian experts to Baku to continue the talks in this area," said Mammadyarov.
Azerbaijan and Georgia will also expand the legal framework, said the minister, adding that over 10 documents on bilateral cooperation are under development.
In turn, Janelidze said the two countries are bound by close cooperation in energy sector, recalling that this year marks the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the Baku-Supsa project.
"Our cooperation also covers the transportation sector," said the Georgian minister. "Both countries will closely cooperate to develop the economic potential."
Saying that Georgia also supports cooperation in the customs area, Janelidze noted that it is necessary to develop the legal framework between the two countries.
"We will also continue to cooperate on international arena. Both countries support the territorial integrity and sovereignty of each other and I hope that this position will remain unchanged," said the minister.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is being constructed on the basis of a Georgian-Azerbaijani-Turkish intergovernmental agreement and is expected to be commissioned in the second half of 2016.
The railway's peak capacity will be 17 million tons of cargo a year. At the initial stage, this figure will be one million passengers and 6.5 million tons of cargo.
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