BAKU- TBILISI- AKHALKALAKI-KARS RAILROAD TO LINK CENTRAL ASIA TO EUROPE
[August 04, 2005, 18:12:19]

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Aug 4 2005

The Baku- Tbilisi- Akhalkalaki-Kars railroad project is of strategic
importance for the South Caucasus, and will give impetus to economic
development of the region, Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Elmar
Mammadyarov told representatives of business circles at the Azerbaijan
Center for Trade and Culture on August 3 in Washington D.C. “Imagine,
it will take you just 3 days to get by train to Brussels or Paris
from Baku,” he said.

Informing the attendees on his meetings in Washington D.C., the
Minister described the talks as very important saying they mainly
focused on anti-terror cooperation, joint efforts aimed at peaceful
settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, economic relations
between the two countries and democratic development in Azerbaijan.

On the same day, Minister Mammadyarov addressed before the participants
of the round table discussion including representatives of such
non-governmental organizations as National Democratic Institute,
International Republican Institute, International Foundation for
Election Systems, as well as those of the US Department of State and
National Security Council.

During the discussion held in a “question-answer” format, the Minister
spoke of the pre-election situation in Azerbaijan.