President: Railroad from Azerbaijan to Armenia border to be ready by late 2023 [UPDATE]

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has said that the railroad from Azerbaijan’s liberated territories to the Armenian border must be ready by late 2023.

He made the remarks in an interview with the Italian “Il Sole 24 Ore” newspaper in Brussels on December 15.

“Yesterday the important decisions were made about the immediate activity by Armenia in order to start practical implementation of the railroad project. As far as we are concerned, we already started. The railroad from liberated territories to the Armenian border must be ready by the end of 2023. We, of course, hope that by that time Armenia will complete their part of the homework,” he said.

Commenting on the trilateral meeting with European Council President Charles Michel and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, the president noted that during the meeting both sides clarified their positions about the new realities which emerged after the second Karabakh war, practical elements of the post-war situation, particularly the opening of the regional communications.

EU support package

Speaking about the amount of support package from the European Union announced to Azerbaijan and Armenia, Aliyev noted that this was a very unpleasant surprise for the Azerbaijani population.

“Just want to clarify that the package to Armenia announced by European Commission is $2.6 billion and to Azerbaijan, as you mentioned $140 million. So the difference is almost 20 times. Is this fair? No. Is it based on the real demands of both countries? Of course, no,” he said.

The president underlined the fact that if taking the number of people who live in both countries, the difference is five times. He added that during the years of occupation, the territory equal to the territory of Lebanon was totally destroyed, demolished.

“Plus, according to our estimations, there are close to one million mines planted and the demining is very costly and takes a lot of time. In Armenia, nothing is destroyed. This country was not occupied, it was a country which occupied. The economy of Armenia physically cannot absorb this huge package. So, it’s very surprising,” he said.

Gas supplies, Russia

The president noted that starting from January 1 Azerbaijan supplied 7.2 billion cubic meters of gas to Italy, Greece, and Bulgaria. He emphasized that the next year it will be 9 billion cubic meters, and in 2023 at least 11 billion cubic meters.

Aliyev expressed Azerbaijan’s readiness to increase natural gas exports to the EU.

“So it is a serious increase. But in order to increase the production, we need, of course, to invest and in order to do that we need to have contracts with consumers. So the contracts first, investments second, and gas third. This is the consequence of the stages of the process,” he said.

Speaking about the increase of gas supplies to the European Union and Russia’s reaction to that, the president noted that all energy projects starting from oil pipeline to gas pipeline were completed in a very friendly environment in the region.

He emphasized that Russia fully respects Azerbaijan’s policy, foreign and energy policy stressing that “we are not rivals”.

“As I said many times, this issue is sometimes artificially exaggerated. We are in no way competitors to Russia, because Russia is supplying hundreds of billions of cubic meters to Europe, and demand for Russian gas is growing. Azerbaijan just started,” he said.

“In no way, this could play any negative role in our relations with Russia which are very positive and well-balanced,” he added.

Cooperation with Italy

Aliyev stressed that Italy is one of the nine EU members with whom Azerbaijan signed a strategic partnership document.

He noted that Italy is the main trade partner for Azerbaijan, noting that after the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline is in operation, Azerbaijan became an important supplier to Italy and the volume of Azerbaijani gas in Italian consumption is growing.

Aliyev also underlined that, as a friendly country, Italy was among the first countries which Azerbaijan invited to work on liberated territories.

“Now there are a lot of projects which Italian companies are implementing there. We invited the Italian architects to renovate our historical monuments and mosques in Shusha and this is a very symbolic gesture. Because Shusha is a sacred place for us,” he said.

Aliyev noted that an Italian company is now in an active process of the construction of the Victory Museum in Baku.

“We invited Italian companies deliberately to demonstrate our partnership and knowing the high-level of performance, high-level of taste and friendly relations between us. I can name you many other construction projects in liberated territories and other parts of Azerbaijan where Italian companies are very active," he said.

Azerbaijan’s economy

The president underlined that Azerbaijan managed significantly to reduce the volume of oil and gas in the country’s GDP.  He added that the structure of Azerbaijan’s economy became more balanced.

“But with respect to our exports, of course, more than 90 percent of our exports is oil, natural gas, oil products and electric energy. For the country it is an advantage,” he said.

Aliyev underlined that the country’s export of non-energy projects grew by 45 percent and non-energy related industry grew by 20 percent.

He added that taking into account the new opportunities on the liberated territories, and the huge potential of agriculture, tourism, renewable energy, and industry, the ratio of a non-oil segment will grow in the volume of export.

Additionally, the president noted that Azerbaijan is transforming the country into Eurasia’s transportation hub. He added that the transportation sector will become one of the leading after the energy sector, noting that the investment in these components brings a lot of benefits.