Elmar Mammadyarov: Ladies and gentlemen! As you know, yesterday Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia Mikheil Janelidze arrived in Azerbaijan on an official visit. It is a very good tradition that Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Georgia pay one of their official visits to each other as the neighboring countries. As you may know, the strategic partnership relations exist between Azerbaijan and Georgia. This meeting can be considered the continuation of the meeting which the Foreign Ministers of Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Georgia held in Tbilisi last month. Today my Georgian counterpart has been received by H.E. Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Afterwards, we have had a meeting. Today, he will also have meetings with the Prime Minister and Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I would like to note that generally the deep strategic partnership relations exist between Azerbaijan and Georgia. We touched upon the issues of bilateral cooperation with Mr. Minister at the meeting. As you know, a meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council was held in Azerbaijan. The cooperation toward the implementation of energy projects between Azerbaijan and Georgia is very broad. During the meeting, we also touched upon the issue of transportation other than energy cooperation. When I was on a visit in Tbilisi, we have visited the area where the segment of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was running. The Foreign Ministers of Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Georgia have noted the particular importance of this corridor. In line with the interests of both Azerbaijan and Georgia, this project will provide opportunities for further strengthening the economic cooperation between the two countries. Furthermore, we discussed the humanitarian issues and the delimitation of borders at the meeting. We agreed to expand the cooperation in the field of tourism with Georgia. We consider that as the cooperation is being expanded in the fields of energy and transportation, the same efforts have to be exerted in this sphere as well. We agreed to organize the meeting of the working group on delimitation of borders soon. The length of the state border of Azerbaijan with Georgia is 480 km. 314 km out of which has already been agreed. We decided to continue our activities towards delamination the remaining part of borders. Therefore, we have invited Georgian experts to Azerbaijan to have further discussion in this regard. Generally, I would like to note that the economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia is dynamically developing. We discussed the legal base required for further expansion of this cooperation. Currently, we have under the consideration 11 legal documents with the Georgian side, 3 or 4 of them have already been agreed. The meeting of the Joint Commission of the Governments of Georgia and Azerbaijan is set to be held soon.

Q&A session:

Question: Did you have a discussion on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at this meeting and can Georgian Foreign Minister express the official position of Georgia toward this conflict which poses a regional threat?

Elmar Mammadyarov: I think, my Georgian counterpart has already expressed the official position of Georgia toward the Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict. Azerbaijan and Georgia firmly recognize and support one-another’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of their internationally recognized borders. I briefed my counterpart about the latest situation on the conflict and he informed me about the latest developments in South Ossetia and Abkhazia issues. At every meeting, the Azerbaijani side raises the issue of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, discusses it and reiterates its position. The position of Azerbaijan toward the conflict is well-known; this conflict must be settled based on the principles of territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan

Thank you!