Caspian region should be a center of stability: President Gül

ISTANBUL

The role of the Caspian region in the future will only increase, says Gül.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül congratulated the participants of the Caspian Forum and noted the importance of the region, in a message read at the forum.

“We need to turn the Caspian region into a center of stability, peace and a high level of wellbeing, and to achieve full integration of the region into the world community,” Gül said in his message.

“The Caspian region has historically been an important center of crossing cultural, transport and trade routes. The region today is important in terms of energy security, sustainable economic development, welfare, the search for peaceful solutions to conflicts,” he added.

The message also emphasized that the role of the Caspian region in the future would only increase. “We strongly support steps towards identifying the true potential of the Caspian region, with which we have historical and cultural ties. To do this, there is a need for the most productive use of existing mechanisms for cooperation. It is necessary to develop a large-scale model of partnership, based on mutual benefit,” it read.

President Gül drew attention to the need for a peaceful settlement to the frozen conflicts in the region.
“Measures in the direction of conflict resolution by diplomatic means must be accelerated. The priority for us is the desire to do everything possible to ensure that countries in the region fully adopt universal values and develop an atmosphere of peace and cooperation,” the message said, adding that a particular focus is on the existing potential for regional cooperation, particularly in trade and transport.

“It is time to promote a spirit of partnership in the Caspian region to a step forward. The Trans-Anatolian pipeline project [TANAP], implemented jointly with Azerbaijan, will be the main element of the Southern Gas Corridor,” Gül added.

The Turkish president also said that in the first phase this pipeline would transport gas from the Shah Deniz field and later from other fields in Azerbaijan. “At some stage this pipeline may export gas from the other shore of the Caspian Sea,” he said.