Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Meets with Azerbaijani Leadership During Baku Visit

Kazakhstan's Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov conducted official meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister Ali Asadov on March 3, reports Orda.kz.

The Azerbaijani President's press service first reported the meeting between Aliyev and Bektenov, with additional details emerging later.

According to information published on both the websites of Kazakhstan's Prime Minister and Azerbaijan's President, discussions focused on potentially increasing trade volume between the countries and developing humanitarian relations.

A key outcome was signing an agreement regarding an undersea internet cable across the Caspian Sea.

Following the meetings, a number of bilateral documents were signed. Among them is a document on the design and construction of a submarine fiber-optic communication line along the Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan route. The project is of strategic importance for improving the quality and reliability of communications, expanding data transmission between Asia and Europe,  the press service of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan said in a statement.

Azerbaijan's presidential press service added that Bektenov and Aliyev also discussed laying an electrical cable across the Caspian seabed to connect both countries' energy systems.

Their talks included oil transportation via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline:

We discussed matters of supporting investment projects through the joint investment fund created in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, the implementation of joint projects in the oil and gas sector, as well as prospects for increasing the volume of transportation of Kazakh oil via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline,  the press service of the President of Azerbaijan reported.

Kazakhstan's side did not mention the oil transportation discussions. 

Orda.kz has previously reported on challenges with increasing Kazakhstan's oil shipments through the BTC pipeline, citing the lower quality of Kazakhstan's oil than Azerbaijan's.

During Bektenov's separate meeting with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov, similar topics were addressed, with an additional focus on agricultural product exchange.

Ali Asadov thanked Olzhas Bektenov for the prompt response of the Kazakh government in conducting a search and rescue operation after the crash of the AZAL plane near Aqtau, as well as for assistance in investigating the causes of the disaster, the press service of the Prime Minister of Azerbaijan reported.

Original Author: Igor Ulitin