Baku – On his mission in the Caucusus, Minister Gentiloni’s second stop was in Baku, where the Minister met with the President of the Republic, Ilham H. Aliyev and with Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, to discuss a long list of bilateral and international issues, also in view of the Italian chairmanship of the OECD in 2018 and of the upcoming G7 (2017) and of its seat on the United Nations Security Council (2017). The issues of oil and gas will be the primary focus of his stop in Azerbaijan, Italy’s second-largest energy supplier after Russia. The key issue remains the TAP Trans Adriatic Pipeline, whose installation is very advanced in Azerbaijan and Georgia and is underway in Greece and Albania. Referring to Italy, Minister Gentiloni reported that “the environmental issues have been solved”, thus paving the way for work to also begin in Apulia to implement “one of the most important projects for the EU, supplying us with gas and connecting us with Central Asia and the Balkans.” (9Colonne)
