Azerbaijani leader outlines energy security's significance Amid global changes

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has outlined the increasing role of energy security amid the current global changes.

He made the remarks in an address to the 9th Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting and the 1st Green Energy Advisory Council Ministerial Meeting held in Baku, Azertag reports.

“Energy security issues became more and more important for every country... The world has changed, and energy security issues became more and more important for every country. And as we said during the meetings that energy security really is a matter of national security, and all that has been done by our joint efforts with respect to building new routes and engaging new sources now seems to be much more needed than ever before,” the head of state noted.

“And it was good that we did everything on time. We did not lose time, though there have been certain delays during the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor project. But in general, we were just very committed to completing it as soon as possible. And now, by the way, we already talk about expansion. The Southern Gas Corridor was inaugurated only something more than two years ago, but already today we talk about the expansion of the TANAP [Trans-Anatolian Gas Pipeline] from 16 to 32 billion cubic metres and the expansion of the TAP [Trans-Adriatic gas Pipeline] from 10 to 20 billion cubic metres,” Aliyev added.

He described the inauguration of an interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria as "an important milestone".

“The inauguration of the Interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria, which of course was generated by the Southern Gas Corridor project and is to a certain degree its extension which allowed us to start supplying natural gas to Bulgaria and also consider expansion through that extension through that interconnector to the neighbouring countries,” the head of state added.