Georgian Defense Minister Meets Azerbaijani President in Baku

Georgia’s Defense Minister, Tina Khidasheli, met Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on December 2.

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

“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 implemented to protect pipelines in view of currently existing challenges,” the Georgian Defense Minister 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 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 Defense 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.