BAKU: PM of Az meets FM of Georgia

Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
May 1 2004

PRIME MINITER OF AZERBAIJAN MEETS FOREIGN MINISTER OF GEORGIA
[May 01, 2004, 21:28:48]

Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizadeh received Minister of
Foreign Affairs of Georgia Mrs. Salome Zurabishvili staying in
Azerbaijan for a visit, May 1.

Having congratulated Mrs. Salome Zurabishvili on her appointment to the
high office, Prime Minister Artur Rasizadeh noted that Azerbaijan
attaches great significance to development of political, economic and
cultural relations with neighboring Georgia. Underlining the importance
of intensifying Azerbaijan-Georgia joint economic commission’s
activity, the Prime Minister expressed satisfaction with successful
joint implementation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and
Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum oil and gas pipelines projects, and pointed to
their good perspectives for the region.

However, Prime Minister Artur Rasizadeh noted touching upon the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that destructive position of Armenia has a
very negative impact on both realization of the mentioned projects and
development of the region as whole.

Thanking the Prime Minister for the sincere meeting, Mrs. Salome
Zurabishvili informed him in detail on the fruitful meetings and talks
she had had in Baku. The Georgian Foreign Minister pointed to
Azerbaijan’s economic revival in a short period and drastic differences
in development between the two neighboring countries, and expressed
confidence in continuation of their close cooperation for the sake of
reestablishment of peace and stability in the region, fair settlement
of the conflicts and further economic progress.

During the meeting held in the sincere atmosphere, the parties also
exchanged views on a number of other issues of mutual interests.

Present at the meeting were Ambassador of Azerbaijan to Georgia Ramiz
Hasanov and Ambassador of Georgia to Azerbaijan Zurab Gumberidzeh.