Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 13 / Trend R. Hafizoglu /
Azerbaijan is Turkey's strategic partner in the field of economy, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said today.
According to Haberturk newspaper, Yildiz said that the trade turnover between the two countries is $3.5 billion, but it is planned to increase this index up to $5 billion.
The minister added that the two countries have many economic projects, one of them - TANAP project. It is the largest in the region.
On June 26, 2012, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed an intergovernmental agreement on TANAP implementation.
In December 2011, Azerbaijan and Turkey signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the consortium that will build a gas pipeline to supply gas from Shah Deniz gas field to Europe through Turkey. BOTAS has a 20 per cent stake in TANAP, while SOCAR holds 80 per cent in the project.
The initial capacity of the pipeline will be 16 billion cubic meters. Some 6 billion cubic meters of the volume will be supplied to Turkey, while the rest will be transported to Europe.