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Elmar Mammadyarov: â€œAzerbaijan will continue its activity to contribute to the diversification of the Europe's energy supplyâ€

30 December 2012 10:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementeva – APA. “Azerbaijan and the European Union have a number of cooperation spheres and agreements signed between the parties serve to reach the existing targets”, said Azerbaijan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs in his interview to a group of information agencies, APA reports.

Reminding Azerbaijan - EU Memorandum of Understanding on Strategic Partnership on Energy signed in 2006, the Minister underlined that "Joint Declaration on the Southern Gas Corridor" signed by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso in 2011 serves to strengthen the strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the EU: “At the same time, Azerbaijan is an active participant of the multilateral “European Neighbourhood Policy” and “Eastern Partnership” formats. Azerbaijan is making efforts to strengthen and deepen bilateral relations with the EU now. Azerbaijan has already proved its role as a reliable partner in multilateral cooperation in the region. However, we have contributed to the EU in the detection of the potential of the South Caucasus, Caspian Sea and Central Asian regions and various regional energy, transport and trade infrastructure projects have been developed and implemented through our participation.”

Mammadyarov noted that the security of energy supplies exported to Europe is very important for our commercial cooperation: “It also paves way to contribute to the safe and secure access to oil and gas reserves in order to ensure vital energy security for the EU, recovery of the economy, as well as as well to supply factories, plants and citizens with energy. The EU comprises the community of 500 people and wide range of consumer market. EU's gas consumption is 500 billion cubic meters per year. These figures may not be compatible with the volume of gas produced in the country, but if Azerbaijan suppling the Europe with 10 billion cubic meters of gas after 2018 and 25-30 billion cubic meters gas every year after 2030 will mean Azerbaijan’s sustainable and reliable contribution to Europe on the management of its industry, market and the economy. Azerbaijan will continue its activity to contribute to the diversification of the Europe's energy supply. It is expedient both in terms of commerce and politics and will bring economic benefits to both sides.”