Top diplomats meet in Baku to contribute to regional security
Top diplomats of Azerbaijan, Turkey, Iran and Georgia get together in Baku for the first time to focus on ways to expand bilateral relations.
A first quadrilateral meeting of Foreign ministers Elmar Mammadyarov, Mevlut Cavusoglu, Mohammad Javad Zarif and Mikheil Janelidze was aimed at promoting regional cooperation
At the meeting, Zarif emphasized that such talks can significantly contribute to the region’s security situation and economic growth.
The Iranian FM underlined the importance of the South-West transit corridor.
“The transit corridor will not only connect our four countries together, it will also provide access form Indian Ocean to Black Sea as well as to the Mediterranean,” Zarif said.
He also highlighted the significance of regional cooperation.
“We need regional cooperation. The Islamic Republic of Iran believes in a strong region and we tend to form bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the region,” he said, adding that cooperation between these four countries can contribute to peace in the region.
The Baku statement envisages several grounds for cooperation in several sectors, including energy and tourism, according to the Iranian foreign minister.
“Transit is one of the most important grounds for cooperation, which will make us capable of linking the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean to the Black Sea, creating the most inexpensive route for all countries of the region,” he said.
Zarif further touched upon opportunities for cooperation in energy sector and said there are various grounds for such cooperation.
The minister also spoke about cooperation in tourism sector and said Iran has already visa waiver regulations with Georgia and Turkey, adding that Iranian citizens will be capable of receiving visas at Azerbaijan’s airports in the near future.
Azerbaijan plays an important role in regional cooperation, Mikheil Janelidze said at a press conference following the meeting.
“We support Azerbaijan’s efforts in establishment of cooperation in the region, in particular, holding of today's quadripartite meeting, which will give an impetus to the expansion of our cooperation,” Janelidze said.
He also expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for its support to Georgia’s territorial integrity and said that Georgia also supports Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity.
“The document on cooperation, which we have signed today, will serve to increase our mutual investment potential, as well as develop cooperation in priority areas,” the minister said.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, addressing the press conference, noted that business circles of Azerbaijan, Iran, Turkey and Georgia will get new opportunities for cooperation.
The foreign minister added that within the quadrilateral cooperation, the countries intend to expand mutual trade by further expanding and implementing the investment potential of the four countries, as well as providing the business circles with new opportunities for mutual trade and participation in new projects.
Cavusoglu said the countries will also have to discuss customs for the development of trade cooperation.
“By signing the declaration on cooperation, we confirm the desire to expand quadrilateral cooperation in transport, energy and tourism, as well as in other priority sectors,” he added. “We intend to develop our transport routes connecting Europe and Asia.”
Baku Statement
At the quadrilateral meeting the sides signed Baku Statement, envisaging commitment of the ministers to the principles and norms of the United Nations Charter.
They reaffirmed commitment to further enhance solidarity and cooperation among the peoples of the four countries based on deep-rooted historical and cultural ties that will serve to strengthen peace, stability, and prosperity in the region.
The sides expressed satisfaction with the growing cooperation among their countries and reaffirmed their strong commitment for further developing their cooperation based on the enhanced partnership, good neighborhood, mutual respect and trust.
The parties emphasized their common interest to strengthen regional peace and stability and stressed their commitment on respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of states as well as peaceful settlement of all conflicts in the region.
The significance of consultations on regional and global issues of common interest at different levels and platforms was also underlined.
They also agreed to use the existing potential for promotion of investments and trade, as well as to support cooperation by implementing the joint projects in the field of energy, transport, finance, telecommunication, information communication technology (ICT), industry, agriculture, tourism and environment.
The sides also underlined the significant steps taken to increase the transit potential of the four countries and stressed the importance of further enhancement of cooperation for implementation of new projects in order to develop transport infrastructure and increase transit potential of the four countries on “South-West” route starting from Iranian Ports of Bandar-Abbas and Chabahar at Persian Gulf through Rasht-Astara connecting to BakuTbilisi-Kars railway.
The importance of strengthening cooperation in the field of civil and willingness to enhance commercial collaboration in the oil, natural gas and petrochemical fields was also agreed.
They agreed to encourage relations among the banking networks of the four countries and emphasized the importance to cooperate within the framework of global and regional economic organizations.
They stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation to mitigate and prevent environmental degradation, with a view to reaching the relevant goals of 2030 sustainable development agenda adopted by the United Nations in September 2015.
The participants agreed to positively evaluate the candidatures of four countries in the international or regional organizations and in this vein, welcomed the candidature of Baku for hosting World EXPO-2025, further taking note that Baku is also candidate city for hosting Annual Meetings of the Board of Governors of the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2021.
The parties underlined the importance of the Tbilisi Belt and Road Forums held in 2015 and 2017 and stressed the significance of high level participation at the next forum in Tbilisi.
The statement also reiterated their firm commitment to strengthen their cooperation in the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and separatism in all their forms and manifestations, transnational organized crime, illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and their precursors, arms, crimes against cultural and historical heritage, cybercrime, human trafficking and smuggling of migrants.
The foreign ministers underscored the importance of cooperation in the areas of culture, education, health care, youth exchange, tourism and sports.
Moreover, the sides stressed the importance of preparation of Quadrilateral Sectoral Cooperation Action Plan in the areas of common interest, reiterated the significance of holding regular meetings in the quadrilateral format and agreed to hold next such meeting in Georgia.