Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbaev is expected to pay an official visit late this month to the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku. Azerbaijan’s Ambassador to Kazakhstan Lyatif Gandilov talked to New Europe correspondent in Astana Kulpash Konyrova in an excusive interview about the matters to be discussed between the leaders of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Ambassador, energy is leading the cooperation between the two republics. And, as is known, US Department of State Special Envoy for Eurasian Energy Richard Morningstar has recently visited just these two former Soviet republics – Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan...
That’s not surprising. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are of a great interest today not only to overseas partners, but also to many other countries worldwide. And the reason for that lies not only in the rich resources of our lands, but also in the fact that the two republics are the leaders in their respective regions: Kazakhstan - in Central Asia, and Azerbaijan - in the South Caucasus.
Both our countries are promising hydrocarbons supplies. Both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are also transit countries through which oil and gas from the Caspian region can be shipped to the world markets. Currently, over 10 agreements are in the works that may be signed during the forthcoming visit of the Kazakh president to Baku. They concern cooperation in the above-mentioned energy sector, transport, agriculture, emergency situations, and consular services.
However, I would like to mention that the base document that defines the nature of our relations is an agreement on strategic partnership and allied relations signed in 2005.
Over the four years since the agreement, the two former Soviet republics have done a lot to mutually strengthen our positions. First of all, speaking of energy, I mean the oil pipeline Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan.
The same in 2005, Kazakhstan signed a document expressing its support for this project. In November last year, the first 300,000 tons of Kazakhstan crude were pumped through this pipeline. Today, this volume has grown to almost one million tons. On the whole, including railway transport, almost three million tons of crude transit through Azerbaijan.
The second, but not less important, energy project is the Kazakhstan Caspian system of pipelines (KCTS) jointly implemented by our two national oil companies. As you know, once Kashagan become operative, this system will make it possible to transport your crude up to Baku, from where it can go to the world markets either by the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan or by the Baku-Supsa.
I would like to note that when the oil price fell to 40 dollars, our two countries did not stop for a minute to work on KCTS. Both countries understood that KCTS was not just an alternative route, but a way out of the crisis. As far as I know, the project feasibility study is practically ready. And this project will be in the centre of attention at the meeting of the two leaders in Baku.
As is known, while visiting Astana, Mr. Morningstar, who you mentioned earlier, clearly expressed the White House’s position with respect to KCTS. They pin big hopes on it for supplies of our crude to Europe.
It’s clear about oil. What about gas? Azerbaijan is known to support the Nabucco project.
Many countries have expressed their interest in this project, first of all, the European Union member states. And if the consumers will want to see it implemented, Azerbaijan will do everything possible to fulfill this project.
Currently, all technical details of the project are being verified. If the project is approved, our republic will be prepared to provide to Nabucco some eight to ten billion cubic meters of its gas, with possible growth in the future.
Speaking of pipelines, your president, Ilham Aliev, often mentions that the future of all oil and gas projects in the region will depend of security and stability in the Caucasus. What is the status of the frozen Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?
It should be noted that the Nagorno-Karabakh issue has been actively discussed lately. However, in my opinion, after the Georgian events, more commitment to the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be expected. Yes, everybody agrees that it should be resolved peacefully, but the process of resolution should not be so long and endless that it would force the sides to use arms to resolve it. In my view, it is necessary to speed up this process, as complex as it may be. But its resolution will give an impetus to good developments in solving other frozen conflicts.
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