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Turkey’s President Abdullah Gül (left) and Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili. (Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–The presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey met in Tbilisi on Tuesday and celebrated the cooperation between their countries.

The summit was initiated by the Turkish president and the main topic was three joint projects. Two of them are already in operation: The 1,760 km long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, and the so-called Shah Deniz gas field.

The third one is under development: The new Baku-Tbilsi-Kars transport corridor, which will unite the railway lines in Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Currently, the Kars-Akhalkalaki line is under construction and will be finished soon.

President of Turkey Abdullah Gul said: “The world is observing the implementation of these projects with big interest. In the past, they used to say it was an unrealistic dream.”

Gul said that the geographic connections between Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan create an important center of gravity.

“Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan openly expressed friendly relations between the countries. This is very important for us,” said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.


He added that these tripartite relations turned out to be unique and increased the interest toward participant countries, not only on a regional but also an international level.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili underlined that the results of these long term tripartite relations are remarkable. Aliev agreed with him, stating that this cooperation should be a good example for other countries too and proposed to hold the next summit in Azerbaijan.

After the summit, Aliev met Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili, and Abdullah Gul attended the Georgia-Turkey economic forum. At the forum, Gharibashvili said: “Turkey is a reliable ally, strategic partner and friend that supports Georgia’s territorial unity, sovereignty and Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic aspirations.”

Gul said: “Energy projects which unite Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey should become a guarantee for EU’s energy security.”