US senator Richard Lugar to visit Azerbaijan

Deputy chairman of the Senate Committee for External Affairs, Republican senator Richard Lugar announced that "after Russia's invasion in Georgia" he will visit nine country for discussion of the "energy security of the Transatlantic alliance", as well as issue of laying new pipelines, including the projected Nabucco gas pipeline.

According to Novosti-Azerbaijan, Lugar said in a statement, released in Washington, that within two weeks he will visit France, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Germany, as well as Belgium.

Deputy chairman of the Senate Committee will visit the head office of the International Energy Agency in Paris on August 23 and on the same day he will leave for Georgia, where he will hold meetings with Georgian officials and familiarize with the process of supply of US humanitarian aid to Georgia, on August 24.

On Monday, August 25, Lugar will be visiting Baku to hold meetings with officials of Azerbaijan, after it he will leave for Ankara for talks with leaders of the Turkish government on August 26.

On August 27-29 the US senator will follow the route of the new projected gas pipeline Nabucco, first visiting the Romanian capital, Bucharest, and then Hungarian capital Budapest, says the statement.

From Hungary, Lugar will leave to Kiev where he will hold talks with the leadership of Ukraine on issues of security and energy on August 30 and 31, after which he will leave to Berlin to discuss the same issues with German officials on September 1 and 2.

From Berlin, the senator will head to Brussels where he will hold meetings with NATO and EU officials to discuss such topics as "Georgia, energy, Atlantic alliance, climate change and genetically mutated seeds".