Baku, Azerbaijan, May 31
By Samir Ali – Trend:
From the geopolitical point of view, Southern Gas Corridor is a project of long-term cooperation, and it is a long-term guarantee of peace and security of energy supply, editor-in-chief of the "Baki Kheber" newspaper Aydin Guliyev told Trend.
He noted that this project will determine the fate of millions of people from the Caspian Sea to the Balkans and Central Europe.
"If we add the desire of the Central Asian states, as well as Iran, to join this corridor, the positive prospects will increase. States associated with this corridor should make every effort to protect it," the editor-in-chief added.
He said that after joining the corridor, the conflicting countries will be forced to end the conflict.
"That is, no country will be interested in the emergence of new conflicts. For example, despite the fact that Western geopolitical strategists have tried to solve the contradictions between Turkey and Greece, simultaneously integrating them into NATO, they failed to fully achieve this. Despite the fact that 66 years have passed, the historical contradiction between the two countries periodically manifests itself. But the Southern Gas Corridor is able to solve the problem, which the Western strategists could not solve," Guliyev said.
"President Ilham Aliyev has laid the foundation for a qualitatively new stage of relations between the countries through which the corridor passes. In the near future, the intensification of the economic development and the improvement welfare of the countries associated with the Southern Gas Corridor will be seen clearly," Guliyev added.
A ceremony to launch the first stage of the Southern Gas Corridor was held in Baku May 29.
The Southern Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU and provides for the transportation of 10 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian region through Georgia and Turkey to Europe.
At the initial stage, the gas produced within the second phase of development of the Azerbaijani gas condensate field Shah Deniz is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects. At a later stage, other sources may be connected to the project.