Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Azerbaijan considers Middle Corridor as form of intercultural dialogue - Assistant to President

14 June 2025 13:00 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan views the Middle Corridor not only as a transport route, but also in a broader sense, as a form of intercultural dialogue, said Hikmet Hajiyev, Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan - Head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Presidential Administration at the “The Middle Corridor: A New Geopolitical and Economic Lifeline?” panel held within the framework of the “GLOBSEC Forum 2025” in Prague, APA reports.

He said that the roads are part of Azerbaijan’s ancient understanding of culture and civilization.

The Assistant to the President emphasized that Azerbaijan has historically been an active participant in this dialogue due to its location on the Silk Road:

“The road is a civilization. In addition, the road is also a dialogue between civilizations for us. In this perspective, Azerbaijan has historically been located on the Silk Road. The second component is geography. We are located on transport networks connecting the West with the East, and the North with the South. After Azerbaijan gained independence, we came to the conclusion that although these two components are important, they are not enough. Therefore, we must turn our geography, historical experience and the expertise we have into new opportunities. We must also take into account that Azerbaijan is a country surrounded by land borders. As a country surrounded by land borders, we have worked to turn this limitation into an advantage.”

He touched upon the work Azerbaijan has done in this regard, as well as the prospects for regional transport corridors:

"Azerbaijan has begun to form its transport networks and the East-West transport corridor. Some call it the East-West corridor, some call it the Middle Corridor, and some call it the Trans-Caspian transport corridor. There is no difference. The main issue is its route and construction. We began the process of building this transport corridor, taking into account these 5-6 parameters. First, we began to implement the formation of the energy network and energy corridor. These are: Baku-Tbilisi-Jeyhan, Baku-Supsa pipelines. These pipelines connect the Caspian Sea with the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The second component of the project was the construction of highways and land roads. But this is not enough. These roads should also connecta country with neighboring states."

The Assistant to the President of Azerbaijan said that the implemented transport projects have revealed the truth that the Caspian Sea is not a dividing factor, but a unifying one.