Azerbaijani, Georgian, Turkish Defense Ministers Meet in Tbilisi

Defense Ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey held the second trilateral meeting in Tbilisi on April 2.

The first meeting in the trilateral format was held in August, 2014 in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan, where the defense ministers agreed to hold such meetings on a regular basis once in six months. The next meeting will be held in Turkey this autumn.

Georgian Defense Minister Mindia Janelidze said that the meeting was “very fruitful”, during which the three defense ministers shared information about developments in the region.

“We unambiguously stress that our cooperation is directed towards strengthening of stability and peace in the region; our cooperation is not directed against anyone; it only aims at stability and peace in the region and at developing capabilities of our armed forces,” Janelidze said standing alongside with his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts.

“I want to note that stability and peace in the region is a necessary precondition for development of our countries,” he said. “I hope that this fruitful cooperation will further deepen in the future.”

According to the Georgian Ministry of Defense, Janelidze has offered his Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts to carrying out joint training courses for Georgian, Azerbaijani and Turkish servicemen at the Sachkhere Mountain-Training School in western Georgia.
 
Defense Minister of Turkey İsmet Yılmaz said the three countries agree that this trilateral format is a very good mechanism for fostering peace and stability in the South Caucasus.

He said that work on drafting a memorandum on defense cooperation between the three countries will continue; signing of this memorandum will help to further deepen defense cooperation between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia, the Turkish Defense Minister said.

Azerbaijani Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov said that complementing economic and political cooperation between the three countries with trilateral format in the defense area is very important. He said that the three countries plan to boost cooperation, among other directions, also through joint trainings.

Foreign ministers of the three countries also have the trilateral format of meetings starting since 2012 and the first trilateral summit of Presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey was held in Tbilisi in May, 2014.

Also on April 2, Turkish and Azerbaijani defense ministers met Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili.