BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 29. The world will never be as it was before February, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said addressing the international conference under the motto “South Caucasus: Development and Cooperation”, Trend reports.
"From economic point of view, point of view of regional transportation ties, there should be an absolutely new map, because we already created a new transportation map. If we look from 2008 when we started working on Baku-Tbilisi-Kars and 2017 when it was done, it is an absolutely new picture. I think that maybe before that there could be more interaction between Southern Caucasus and Central Asia. Today, it doesn’t happen. It is kind of sporadic and mainly it comes through Azerbaijan, through our infrastructure facilities, but I think Azerbaijan, as a Caspian littoral state, a Caucasian state, has a special role in this format. It can happen. So, these are our plans. Usually, our plans, when they are officially announced, they have been implemented. What I am saying now is my thoughts. I do not yet make it an official agenda, but we are working on that. I think there is a big potential for Azerbaijan to join political consultations which Central Asian countries have between themselves. You know there is a format of five countries. We are very close historical connections and traditional ties with these countries and the peoples of these countries. Plus, the Caspian Sea should be a bigger bridge between cultures and between economies. Will Armenia be part of that? I don’t know. I think it will be good for all that they are and there is an opportunity, what we offered and which is called Zangazur corridor will cross their territory. I am sure it will, but again they are losing time, because we already are building the highway and railroad to Armenian border and the railroad will be ready by the end of this year and the highway maybe later. So, if they are not part of that, then they will be bypassed and last month we already signed an MOU with Iran on building bridges bypassing Armenia. So, look, we bypass them in the projects related to gas and oil pipelines and Georgia is benefiting from that, getting good money from carriers. We bypass them, building the road to Kars through Tbilisi and now, when they have a historical chance to demonstrate their people that there can be benefits of their military failure at war and that benefit is being part of the region and getting access to the wealth. Against for one year and a half year they blocked it. They did not give us the geographical coordinates where the road will go through Megri region and they did not start even a feasibility study on construction of the railroad, though our 60 kilometers of the railroad is already ready. And 40 kilometers left, as I said, maybe by the end of the year or in the beginning of next year, it will be ready. And then we will build a bridge and we already agreed with Iranian government and they will be bypassed. So, my prognoses are based, of course, on our agenda, but I do not know what will be the agenda in Armenia and what will be a global situation in the world, because since we met last time, the situation in the world already is different and, of course, the world will never be as it was before February," the head of state said.