Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 12 / Trend H.Valiyev /
Azerbaijan claims for the presidency in the Trans-Asia-Europe (TAE) project in the next three years, Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies told Trend on Monday.
According to the ministry, the issue was discussed within the 21st committee meeting on project management, held on November 7-8 in Baku, which was attended by representatives of the Ukrtelecom national communication operator of Ukraine, the German company T-systems (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) and Georgian company FopNet.
The project members formally expressed support for Azerbaijan's presidency in the project. Signing of protocol, officially certifying the country's presidency, is expected in the coming week.
The chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the project is provided for the period of 2013-2015. It passes to the country from the Ukrainian side.
Also, one of the main issues discussed by the project participants during the meeting was a question on the future of this project. Azerbaijani side expressed readiness to make the necessary efforts to further improve its efficiency, taking into consideration globalization and the ever-increasing demands.
The construction of the Azerbaijani segment of the cable line has been completed.
Implementation of the TAE project was agreed by tripartite protocol signed on October 21, 1999 between Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. In December of the same year, construction began in the Azerbaijani segment of TAE. In 2001, the construction of the onshore section of the segment was completed, and channels of communication between Baku and Tbilisi were transferred to a fiber-optic TAE highway.
Commissioning of the fiber-optic highway allowed to establish a direct line between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Iran, Russia, and Ukraine.
