Georgian president Salome Zourabichvili have been on an official visit to Azerbaijan. Eurasia Diary took the opinion of Georgian political analyst Gia Abashidze for the valuation of Azerbaijan Georgian relations.
"First of all, it is very good for the bilateral relations that the fifth President of Georgia has chosen Azerbaijan for her first regional trip," Abashidze thinks.
Expert considers that Salome Zourabichvili outlined the need for regional development among her major priorities.
"In my opinion, Zourabichvili together with her Azerbaijani counterpart will be very much focused on maintaining regional stability, enhancing regional and extra-regional cooperation in transport, trade, energy, social, cultural and many other areas," Abashidze explains.
"Today once again it was reiterated in Baku on the highest level that Georgia and Azerbaijan support each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty in all international platforms," the expert notes while believing that the local authorities in both countries should bear in mind sensitivities in the South Caucasus region.
He also clarifies the decision of gas supply by Gazprom. The expert considers that this is a decision serves for diversification of energy routes.
"Georgia decided to rely on Azerbaijan’s natural gas many years ago. Azerbaijan helped us in the times when we were in a total energy deficit and we are very grateful for that," Abashidze says.
Abashidze prefers that Georgia chooses alternative suppliers if needed but not to depend heavily on Russia.
"Georgians are well aware of what does the political price for gas from Russia means and our society does not need repetition of the bad past. There are other alternative suppliers available," Abashidze concludes.
Ulvi Ahmedli