Black Sea undersea cable talks enter active stage, Georgian ambassador says

Zurab Pataradze, the Georgian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, on December 29 said negotiations on the Black Sea submarine cable project - intended to connect the grids of the South Caucasus and European Union member states - were in an “active phase”. 

“I think the [talks] will end very soon, and we will all witness involvement in this project. Georgia is positioning itself not only as a transitory country, but primarily as an electricity exporting country”, he said, according to agenda.ge.

Pataradze added the Government was putting a “great emphasis” on the development of renewable energy and was doing “its best” for the project to move to the next stage “on time”.

The ambassador also highlighted trade relations between the two countries as “unprecedented”.

“This year, the trade turnover between the countries will exceed one billion [US dollars]. Of course, our corridor has great potential in terms of transit, and a number of important projects are being implemented in this direction”, he noted.

“We are talking about strengthening the Middle Corridor [a logistics route connecting China with Europe through the South Caucasus region], promoting it in order to attract more cargo to our region, and [...] the completion of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars [railway] project”, he said.

Pataradze added the expansion of the railway route would be completed early next year, enabling rail transportation of about five million tonnes of cargo.