Azerbaijani media, citing the announcement of Roland Kobia, head of the EU Office in Baku, reports that EU believes that it is in the interest of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan to be able to develop the Trans Caspian Pipeline and adds that EU still holds discussions with Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan on the Trans Caspian pipeline.
“We had a last round of ministerial meetings in Ashgabat in early September with Commissioner GüntherOettinger. So we are continuing our discussions” said Kobia and added “however, it is not an easy task, because it is a very complex initiative”.
Trans-Caspian gas pipeline running to around 300 kilometers will be laid from the Turkmen coast of the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijani, where it will be linked to the Southern Gas Corridor. Negotiations between Turkmenistan and the EU and other countries on the construction of the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline have been on-going since the late 90s.
Note, in September, 2011 the EU Council gave a mandate for negotiations between the EU, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan to build the Trans-Caspian gas pipeline.
However, later, Iran and Russia expressed negative attitude toward this project. Tehran and Moscow think that the pipeline construction will damage the Caspian Sea environment.
