ALIYEV AND SHEVARDNADZE HAVE SIGNED A DECLARATION ON SPECIAL TYPE OF FRIENDLY RELATIONS OF AZERBAIJAN AND GEORGIA

PanARMENIAN.Net - Georgia's President Eduard Shevardnadze and Azerbaijan's President Heydar Aliyev have signed a Political declaration stating about special type of friendly relations between the two countries. As CNA agency informs, in this document signed during the Shevardnadze's official visit to Baku last week, the sides expressed their readiness to cooperate in the questions of security including joint operations in the struggle against the terror. According to Shevardnadze, now as they are strategic partners in the region, they will focus on the issues of defense potential. In his opinion, having a professional army, a country can overcome separatism even without use of force, but only by use of the military factor as a mean of pressure at negotiations. The special role of energy projects in the stabilization of the situation in the region was particularly emphasized in the Declaration. In this respect, the importance of the intergovernmental agreement for the transit of natural gas from the Caspian "Shah-Deniz" field to Turkey signed Saturday was noted. At the final press conference the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Georgia said that Azerbaijani gas would reach the consumers in Turkey in the second part of 2004 through the "Baku-Tbilisi-Erzrum" export gas pipeline that BP Company was projecting then.