Minister of Energy spoke about Azerbaijan's contributions to energy cooperation of Turkic states in Budapest

Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov attended the 3rd Meeting of the Ministers in charge of Energy of the Organization of Turkic States in Budapest, Hungary.

In his speech at the meeting, the minister noted the Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State in Ankara on the initiative of the President of Azerbaijan as an indicator of high solidarity among the Turkic states. It was noted that the joint strategic views of the Heads of State, the contacts that have intensified in recent years, the historically important visits that determine the path line of multi-vector cooperation contribute to the improvement of relations to a new level. As a result, in addition to brotherhood, friendship, the nature of our relations is determined by strategic partnership and alliance today.

In the speech, the importance of strengthening the spiritual unity of the Turkic states with political and economic partnerships was discussed. It was noted that the trade turnover of Azerbaijan with member and observer countries increased by 42.7% last year and exceeded 7.2 billion USD, these countries invested 14.3 billion USD in our economy, and Azerbaijan invested more than 21 billion USD in these states. The importance of the development of energy cooperation was assessed in the aspect of the well-being of our countries and energy security in Eurasia. It was noted that since the commissioning of TANAP and TAP, 20.9 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas have been supplied to Türkiye and 22 billion cubic meters to Europe. This year, 10.2 out of 24.5 billion cubic meters of our expected gas exports are expected to supply to Türkiye and about 12 bcm to Europe.

It was emphasized that our renewed strategic energy partnership with the European Union gave a new impetus to energy cooperation between the Turkic states along with the expansion of energy security projects such as the Southern Gas Corridor and the transformation of Azerbaijan into a supplier of green energy: “The signing of the Agreement on strategic partnership in the field of development and transmission of green energy between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Romania in December and the Memorandum of Understanding on natural gas cooperation in January of this year allows Hungary to be supplied with natural gas and electricity from a new source. If Azerbaijan is the starting point of the green energy corridor connecting the Caspian to Europe, Hungary is the final point. However, we believe that Hungary will become a transit hub for green energy, expanding this corridor to new countries in the future.”

Important progress was also noted by the annual transportation of 1.5 million tons of Kazakhstani oil to world markets through BTC, the launch of new projects with Uzbekistan, as well as the signing of a document on cooperation with Turkmenistan in the field of energy in a trilateral format. Turkic states were invited to participate in the process of transforming Karabakh and East Zangezur into a green energy zone.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan, Türkiye, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan are members of the Organization of Turkic States, while Hungary, Turkmenistan and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are observer states.