Georgian defense minister meets Azerbaijani president in Baku

Khidasheli said after the meeting that the security of strategic oil and gas pipelines running from Azerbaijan to Turkey via Georgia was among the topics of discussions.

"Naturally, we discussed our strategic cooperation; among other issues, we discussed the issue of security of oil pipelines, and what kind of additional measures can be taken to protect pipelines in view of the existing challenges,” she said.

"We also spoke about energy projects in which Georgia and Azerbaijan are jointly participating and which may become the objects of high risk considering the unpleasant developments in our region and therefore, we, the partner countries, have to spare no efforts and have to carry out more efforts to prevent these risks from growing into threats,” she said.

In Baku the Georgian minister also met her Azerbaijani counterpart, Colonel General Zakir Hasanov, and Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizade.

Her visit to Azerbaijan came two weeks before a trilateral defense ministerial meeting of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, which will be held in Istanbul.

Regular trilateral meetings of the defense ministers of the three countries were launched in August 2014.

Before visiting Baku, the Georgian defense minister was in Brussels, where she addressed the European Parliament’s security and defence subcommittee, and also met Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

 

(Civil.ge)