Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Azerbaijani President attends Munich Security Conference`s â€œEnergy, Resources, and the Environment: New Security Parametersâ€ panel discussion

05 February 2012 00:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has attended Munich Security Conference`s â€œEnergy, Resources, and the Environment: New Security Parameters?â€ panel discussion.
Azerbaijan`s first lady Mehriban Aliyeva was among the participants in the event.
The panel discussion`s moderator, Foreign minister of Sweden Karl Bildt introduced the Azerbaijani President as the keynote speaker and reported that the event attended by European Union Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, chairman of the "Alliance" Michael Diekmann, CEO of Greenpeace International Kumi Naidoo, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich
Addressing the meeting, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev thanked the participants and spoke about the history and the era of independence of Azerbaijan.

The President noted that during the last 20 years of independence, Azerbaijan became a country with a diversified economy basically, by rational use of energy, "Ongoing energy projects since the mid-1990s with the initiative of our countryâ€™s have significantly changed the map of the Caucasus and Caspian region and are changing the energy map Europe."

President Aliyev said that now Azerbaijan is known as a country with huge reserves of gas, " Shah Deniz with 1 trillion cubic meters of gas, is one of the largest in the world. New gas fields discovered in 2010 and last year, confirm that gas reserves in Azerbaijan exceed 2.5 trillion cubic meters. It is clear that these reserves will be enough for us and our partners and customers. "

President Aliyev called an important event signing agreement on transit of gas between Turkey and Azerbaijan, which actually opens the "big door" for the supply of Azerbaijani gas to European markets.

We are in a very unique situation. Because, first, we need the European market, secondly because it is the market regulated by legislation and law norms, and of course this is a growing market of our partners. And European markets needs alternative sources supplies.

We are talking a lot about diversification and energy security and these two issues are directly linked. But when we are talking about energy security and diversification for European consumers, I think first we should talk about diversification of sources rather than diversification of roots with the same sources. This diversification is also important.

So Azerbaijan is a new big source for European consumers and if we succeed in implementation of our plans in building a strong Southern Gas Corridor we will enter into the period of very fruitful mutual cooperation in energy area for decades ahead. Therefore, the energy security now becomes and already became an important issue of national security and we, as producers, understand this and want our partners treated the same way. Without energy security and predictability no country can plan its future development, said the President. We are aware of developments and approaches to various sources of energy, especially after the tragedy that occurred at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima.Thus, it is clear that demand for natural gas will grow. "

The President of Azerbaijan underlined that Azerbaijan pays attention to protection of the environment.

â€™Azerbaijan as a country that takes care about its natural resources and its nature. For decades, for more than a century oil resources of Azerbaijan were developed without any respect to the environment. Today our responsibility is to clean up all that legacy from the decades of production of oil offshore or onshore to contribute to the course of global environment protection.

Taking into account and regardless the fact that we have oil and gas and markets we now invest in renewable energy. We think that this is a part of our responsibility We invest in solar, wind energy not because we need this and not because we need it like substantial part of our energy balance, but we treat it as our responsibility in front of the past and future generation.

Azerbaijan is ready to play its role to provide energy security and diversification and to protect our natureâ€™ said Ilham Aliyev.

Then European Commissioner for Energy Guenther Oettinger, the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych and other guests had speeches.

One of the participants asked the following question: "I feel that we are talking about the political situation in the countries in which we can invest, and geographic corridor. So I want to address my question to Mr. Diekmann, because identification of potential business risks, and work on them are included in the scope of your authority. I would like to ask you: last year we have seen riots in Egypt and Tunisia. Have there been changes this year in your work on assessing the risks associated with the political situation in countries rich in energy resources? Citing an example from the experience of countries such as Egypt, - there is also the President of Azerbaijan - would you invest in a country like Azerbaijan, which by its political structure is very similar to Egypt till overthrow Mubarak? ".

President Ilham Aliyev responded to this question: "I want to comment on the question, which is actually an attempt to present the situation in Azerbaijan, such as in Egypt. I think the best answer to this question was a strange reaction of the participants. I want to bring to the attention of several indicators that the questioner does not know because of their ignorance. For 8-year period of my presidency, the gross domestic product in Azerbaijan increased by 3 times - up to 300 percent. The poverty rate declined from 50 to 7.6 percent. Inflation was 5.4 percent. For the past eight years have been created over 1 million jobs. Our foreign debt is 6 percent of gross domestic product. Diversification of the economy is stable. The political situation is stable. We have a multiparty system. In our parliament there are more than 10 parties. We have a free press. We have freedom of speech. We have freedom of religion. Finally, we have free Internet. I would like to note that in our region, not all countries have free internet. In Azerbaijan, the number of internet users exceeds 50 percent of the population, and this figure is growing.
In Azerbaijan, a modern, stable society. If anyone wants to see in Azerbaijan something similar to the events in Egypt, I can assure you that regardless of your desire, you will not see. "