13:31 - 26.12.2018

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December 26, Fineko/abc.az. Next year Azerbaijan is to lead the Non-Aligned Movement.

Country’s leader Ilham Aliyev has stated that such a format of cooperation has formed on the energy map of the world - Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan in bilateral and in the trilateral plan is very promising.

"We started implementing energy projects in the early 2000s, in order to enter the world markets, and it was simply necessary to build infrastructure. As for the Southern Gas Corridor, launched officially in May, it is a project that combines four important independent projects. This is development of largest gas condensate field Shah Deniz and construction of three integrated gas pipelines. To date, three out of four segments of this project have already been implemented, and after the official opening of the Corridor in May, the opening of the TANAP project took place in June," the president emphasized.

He pointed out that the SGC will allow doubling gas export to the Turkish market times, as well as to enter the markets of neighboring countries with Turkey and further to Western Europe. This will make it possible to realize large gas potential and will bring billions of dollars to Azerbaijan’s treasury.

"This has already created tens of thousands of jobs and certainly creates a completely new energy map of Eurasia. Combining the efforts of Azerbaijan, Russia and Turkey in this direction will not only allow us to realize our plans fully and ensure our interests, but also to have very predictable policy in terms of development of our energy resources and their transportation," President Aliyev said.

He stressed that the importance and the role of Azerbaijan not only in the energy market, but also, in general, in geopolitical terms, is growing. The country is becoming more developed, has more plans on its position in the region, and in proportion to the development and how independent policy is pursued, the pressure is growing.

"But it is not linked with energy factors. It is linked with attempts to involve sometimes us in some adventures which are categorically contraindicated to our people and our country. There are no potential risks and threats in Azerbaijan - neither physical nor ideological, nor social, nor political. Everything that can disturb peace of our citizens can be brought from the outside. Therefore, we’re very careful about issues related to our sovereignty, very sensitive to this, to issues related to our security, to the security of our citizens. Therefore, attempts to involve Azerbaijan in some international adventures have always failed. Probably, someone does not like it, and sometimes we see these results. As a rule, they are expressed in the adoption of some resolutions of international organizations, where we do not participate at all," the Azerbaijani leader said.