Georgia requests extra USD 500 mln from Azerbaijan

During the recent visit of the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Vera Kobalia to Azerbaijan, the issue of construction of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was discussed. This is a very important project not only for Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey but for the entire region and interests towards it has already been expressed by China and Kazakhstan. The Georgian side has insisted that USD 500 mln extra financing from the Azeri side is urgently needed to continue the project and to ensure it is completed on schedule. A 98 km long track should be laid out of which 30 km is in Georgia’s territory thus Turkey will be connecting to Azerbaijan via Georgia bypassing Armenia.

Georgia is conducting works on rehabilitating the already existing tracks between Tbilisi and Akhalkalaki but additional money would need to be raised for this purpose.