Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 28 / Trend H.Valiyev /
The signing of the protocol, formally approving chairmanship of Azerbaijan in the 'Trans-Asia-Europe' (TAE) project will be held in early December, Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies told Trend on Wednesday.
The ministry reported that according to preliminary information, the project participants unanimously expressed support for Azerbaijan's presidency in the project.
Azerbaijani side stated that during the presidency the country will make the necessary efforts to further improve the effectiveness of TAE, considering globalization and ever-increasing demands.
Presidency of Azerbaijan in the project is provided for period of 2013-2015. It will be passed to the country from the Ukrainian side.
The issue of Azerbaijan's presidency in the TAE project was considered within the 21st committee meeting on project management, which was held in Baku on November 7-8, and attended by representatives of Ukrainian national operator Ukrtelecom, the German company T-systems (a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom) and Georgian companies FopNet.
Also, one of the main issues discussed by the project participants during the meeting, were questions on the future of the project.
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