Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh problem and gas transportation routes

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev will discuss 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.

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 ˆ7.9 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% share.


/Trend/