Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili met with Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

At the one-on-one meeting—held within the scope of Ilham Aliyev’s working visit to Georgia—matters pertaining to the strategic cooperation between the two countries were discussed.

Among the topics discussed at the meeting was cooperation in the areas of energy, transport, and logistics. The Prime Minister emphasized that Azerbaijan is one of the largest trade partners of Georgia, among the top five every year, while the trade between the countries grew by 15% in 2023. Equally growing is the volume of the freight transport between the two countries.

The parties reviewed prospects of developing the Middle Corridor, on which Georgia and the Republic of Azerbaijan are working in coordination with the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to rapidly develop this corridor, which envisages railroad modernization, expansion and construction of ports, road modernization and development. It was noted that Azerbaijan and Georgia have launched large-scale work in these directions, and the railroad modernization project is well underway in Georgia, which will be completed at the end of 2024 and will double the railroad’s transit capacity. The construction of the large-scale Anaklia Port will also start soon, and the port’s transit capacity will be 100 million tons. In addition, the construction of the East-West Highway will be finalized in the near future. In all these projects, Georgia is actively cooperating with Azerbaijan. The Head of Government emphasized the strategically important Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railroad Project, which is being implemented with equal success and is expected to be finalized in a few months.

Irakli Garibashvili and Ilham Aliyev also discussed the security environment and challenges in the region and worldwide. The Head of Government thanked Ilham Aliyev for firmly supporting Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and reassured him of support for Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. He expressed the hope that a peace treaty with the Republic of Armenia will be signed soon, which will contribute to the establishment of lasting peace in the South Caucasus and will bring prosperity to the region’s three countries. Irakli Garibashvili pointed out that Georgia is always ready to make its contribution to promote lasting peace and stability in the region.