SOURCE: PRESIDENTS OF AZERBAIJAN AND RUSSIA TO DISCUSS NAGORNO-KARABAKH PROBLEM AND GAS TRANSPORTATION ROUTES
Trend
Nov 17 2010
Azerbaijan
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will discuss with his Azerbaijani
counterpart Ilham Aliyev the Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the options
for energy resources transportation routes from oilfields in the
Caspian Sea in Baku on Thursday, a source in the Russian delegation
reported.
Medvedev will attend the third summit of the Caspian Sea littoral
countries, which will be held in Baku on Nov.18. Medvedev will also
hold several bilateral meetings, including meetings with leaders of
Kazakhstan and Iran.
“I think the main theme of the meeting with President Aliyev will
certainly be problems of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement,”
the source was quoted as sayings by RIA Novosti.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988
when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian
armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992,
including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The
co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group – Russia, France, and the U.S. –
are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council’s four
resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the
surrounding regions.
Over the past two years, seven trilateral meetings of the leaders of
Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia took place. At the last meeting held
on Oct.27 in Astrakhan, the parties agreed to exchange prisoners
of war and return bodies of the dead during the conflict. According
to Medvedev, now there are still questions on the principles of the
settlement, which later should be the basis for a peace agreement,
but if the parties work well in the next month, it will be possible to
achieve the agreed version of the general principles of the settlement
by the OSCE summit in Kazakhstan scheduled for Dec.1-2.
According to the source, the second theme, which will be discussed
at the Aliyev-Medvedev meeting, refers to the fuel and energy complex.
“The leaders may mull the issue of energy transportation routes from
the fields located on the Caspian Sea. It is possible that the leaders
can raise the Nabucco topic. How it will be filled, if Azerbaijan
and Turkmenistan will not supply oil,” he said.
Nabucco gas pipeline project is worth (EURO)7.9 billion. Construction
of gas pipeline is planned to be launched in 2011, the first supplies
– in 2014. Maximal capacity of the pipeline will hit 31 billion cubic
meters per year.
Construction of the Nabucco pipeline will be implemented in two main
phases. The first phase of construction (2011) includes laying a new
pipeline length of 2,000 kilometers, starting at the Turkish border
and ending in Austria’s Baumgarten. The second phase (2014-2015 year)
includes the construction of the remainder of the pipeline on the
border between Turkey and Georgia, as well as Turkey and Iraq.
Construction of the first section of Nabucco length of 2.730 kilometers
will begin in the southern part of Ankara (Turkey) and will continue
in the western direction to the Bulgarian border through Central
Anatolia and the Marmara Sea. 75 percent of the route will pass
through existing pipelines.
Nabucco participants are the Austrian OMV, Hungarian MOL, Bulgarian
Bulgargaz, Romanian Transgaz, Turkish Botas and German RWE. Each has
an equal 16.67-percent share.
From: A. Papazian