ArmInfo. One should not eliminate the possibility of Azerbaijan joining Eurasian Economic Union in the future, says President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev in an interview with ria.ru.
"This topic has been much spoken of by experts and political elites of various countries. We feel rather confident in our current position. So, we need to wait to follow the tendencies. If EAEU becomes attractive, many will seek to join it. That is why, everything is possible," Aliyev said.
The Azerbaijani president believes Azerbaijan's political and economic cooperation with the EAEU countries rather strong. In his words, there can be many motives for integration: economic, social, political and others.
The Azerbaijani leader expressed readiness to stop increasing the oil extraction first, without waiting for the decisions of other producers. He is sure that no energy projects in the region can compete with TANAP gas pipeline that is part of the Southern Gas Corridor.
"The gas volumes we will be transporting through the pipeline at the first stage have already been contracted and sold. We signed contracts to increase extraction starting 2018 that will reach its peak in 2020-2021. Therefore, no other energy projects can compete with it, as we have already sold that gas," Aliyev said.
On October 17, in Istanbul, representatives of Russia and Turkey signed an inter-governmental agreement on the implementation of Turkish Stream gas project. The sides agreed to on gas discounts under Turkish Stream project.
After the signing ceremony, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said the agreement provides for construction of two gas pipelines across the Black Sea by December 19. The capacity of each pipeline will total 15 billion 750 million cubic meters of gas. The first pipeline will be supplying gas to the Turkish market, while the other will be transiting it via Turkey to Europe.