Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan visits Athens
On 13 February 2013 Mr. Gulmammad Javadov, Deputy Minister of Industry and Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, paid a working visit to Athens to participate at the Signing Ceremony of the tripartite Intergovernmental Agreement on Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) project held at the premises of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic.
During this event Mr. Javadov has also delivered the following speech:
Dear Ministers, Colleagues, representatives of mass media,
I am pleased and honored to be present here today at the signing ceremony of the tripartite Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans Adriatic Pipeline project.
On behalf of the government of the Republic of Azerbaijan I would like to congratulate all of you with this significant step towards the opening of the required conditions for the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project.
TAP was always good technically, robust financially and feasible economically. After today`s event it will stand also consolidated politically, since strong political and legal foundation will be set providing TAP with good chances in the race for delivering Azerbaijani gas to European markets.
The year of 2012 and the beginning of 2013 have seen huge progress for TAP, and we expect that upcoming months will prove to be even more successful. Another important milestones which lay ahead, are execution of Host Government Agreements with Greece and Albania and ratification of HGAs and IGA in the parliaments.
At the end of March TAP will submit its “Decision Support Package” and binding DSP at the end of April. We hope this “Package” will be strong and competitive enough to enable the Shah Deniz Consortium and the Government of Azerbaijan to select TAP in June as the winner and to give it the right to transport Azerbaijani gas in the Southern Gas Corridor.
Dear Friends,
I would like also to use this happy opportunity to reaffirm once more strategic objective of my Government to see the Southern Corridor operational as soon as possible and to establish the Republic of Azerbaijan as a reliable and substantial provider of European Energy security.
Thank you for your attention.
In the framework of the visit Mr. G.Javadov met with Mr. Dimitris Kourkoulas, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic.
Mr. Javadov congratulated Mr. Kourkoulas on the signing of the TAP agreement and called it as an important and practical step towards the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project. He stressed the interest of Azerbaijan to strengthen its economic cooperation with Greece not only in the oil and gas fields but also in the fields of renewable energy, trade, tourism, services and other sectors of industry. In this regard the Azerbaijani Deputy Minister highly welcomed the decision of the Hellenic side to send a high level business mission to Azerbaijan on 6-8 March, headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Kourkoulas to participate at the Hellenic-Azerbaijani Business Forum sponsored by the Hellenic-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce.
He also expressed his firm believe that this event as well as a direct flight connection Athens-Baku-Athens to be launched as of 28 May this year would significantly contribute to developing of trade and economic relations between the two countries.
Mr. Kourkoulas stressed the interest of his country to build strong and sustainable trade and economic relations with Azerbaijan and hoped for successful talks and outcome of the forthcoming business forum to be held in Baku.
