By BAKU. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary have signed an agreement on a strategic partnership in sustainable energy and its transmission, according to a statement posted on the Azerbaijani president’s website.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Romanian Prime Minister of Nicolae Ciuca, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban signed the agreement in Bucharest in Saturday. Romanian President of Klaus Iohannis and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen attended the signing ceremony.
This project’s presentation took place a week earlier the first meeting of the Global Gateway initiative Council. "The project will cost an estimated EUR 2.3 billion," according to the presentation.
Azerbaijani Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov said earlier that his ministry expected to complete a feasibility study for a project to lay underwater cables in the Black Sea to supply electricity with capacity of 1,000 MW and transmit digital communications between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Romania by the end of 2023.
This project will become a corridor for sustainable energy and will diversify the Azerbaijani electricity market, expanding its role as a supplier and strengthening the integration of the Caspian region with the Black Sea and the European Union.
"We quickly came to an agreement that Azerbaijan will produce a large amount of ‘green’ electricity, which will be delivered by an underwater cable first to Georgia and then to Romania. And we agreed today that Hungary will join this large-scale project, because in order for this project to gain EU support, at least two [EU] member countries need to be involved in it," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in August.
Hungary will be able to use some of this green energy for its own needs and send a certain amount of electricity to neighboring countries via its territory, he said. This project may be put into practice "in three or four years," Szijjarto said.
The EU Global Gateway initiative aims to mobilize up to EUR 300 billion of investment between 2021 and 2027 to develop infrastructure internationally. The initiative involves the EU, member countries and their financial and development institutions, including the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
