On June 20, Jeyhun Bayramov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, spoke at the Caspian Connection Conference organized by the Caspian Policy Center as part of his business trip to the United Kingdom, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry reported.

In his speech, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov spoke about the irreplaceable opportunities created by the Caspian region, which has an exceptional geographical location. He emphasized that the importance of transport routes passing through Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, and then the Caucasus is increasing. He said that attention is being paid to the diversification and modernization of Azerbaijan's transport infrastructure, and several transport infrastructure projects are being promoted to strengthen trade and logistics between Europe and Asia.

In his speech, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov also pointed out that Azerbaijan is an active initiator and reliable partner in the implementation of several other regional connectivity projects, such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and the Trans-Caucasus fiber-optic cable project.

Minister Jeyhun Bayramov stated that transit through Azerbaijan increased by 75% in 2022 and expressed confidence that opening all communications would further contribute to sustainable peace and stability in the region and significantly increase trade and transport. In this sense, he spoke about the importance of the Zangezur Corridor, an initiative that has come to the fore and has the potential to increase connectivity within the Middle Corridor further. Despite the efforts made, the difficulties caused by Armenia in opening communications were brought to attention.

The minister said Azerbaijan had taken initiatives to expand regional cooperation with several countries. In this regard, he talked about the works done in the framework of tripartite formats and important documents signed in close collaboration with Turkey, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

The speech also mentioned the cooperation in the field of "green energy" between the EU and Azerbaijan and expressed confidence that the launch of the Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania-Hungary Black Sea submarine cable project will redefine the regional energy map and accelerate the energy transition in the participating states.

In his speech, Minister Jeyhun Bayramov said that perspectives for the normalization process had been opened based on mutual respect for each other's sovereignty, territorial integrity, and inviolability of borders with Armenia.

He noted that Azerbaijan is determined to continue progressing through development that contributes to building a safer and more prosperous future of the region and expressed its interest in cooperation with investors from the region and beyond. All partners were invited to support Azerbaijan's post-conflict reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts.