Prospects of cooperation between three neighboring countries

The presidents of Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan held a trilateral summit on May 6th in Tbilisi. Further deepening of relations in various spheres was re-confirmed. As it was agreed, the greatest achievement of this summit was the demonstration of friendship between the three nations.

Increased cooperation between the three countries is a reality of the post-Soviet era, which is based on mutually beneficial activities in various directions. This friendship has given birth to internationally important projects including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which will be finished by next year.

These projects will be used for the transportation of energy resources and eventually cargo and passengers through railways connecting Europe with Asia.

At the Tbilisi Summit 2014, the growing economic cooperation among the three countries was highlighted as trade turnover is constantly increasing between the countries. There is also a visa-free connection between the citizens of these three countries.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili, Prime Minister Irakli Gharibashvili and other members of the cabinet highlight the importance of such cooperation.

To counterbalance the success of cooperation within the three countries, one of the key players in the region, the Russian Federation, tries to accelerate similar processes involving Armenia and Azerbaijan. Russia aims at forcing Georgia to move into the same direction as well.

So far, Moscow has managed to involve only Armenia in its Eurasian Union, but in this case, Armenia is forced to join an alliance with Russia because of its military conflict with Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan has refrained from integrating with the Eurasian Union, whereas Georgia is in a military conflict with Russia as the latter is occupying 20% of the Georgian territories.

It was decided at the summit that the meeting of the presidents of these three countries would be a regular occurrence. President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, wants to hold the next summit in Baku on the day that the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway begins operating.