Prime Minister Edi Rama commented on the ties and cooperation between Albania and Azerbaijan and the project on gasification of Albania in a brief interview he gave to Albanian media on the sidelines of his official visit to Baku.
Answering to the question whether he and Azerbaijani President discussed and reached any concrete deal on energy investment projects, Prime Minister Rama said:
“We have been in contact with President Aliyev for a long time now and we have established a very good friendship thanks to the fact that we also have a great mutual friend, namely President Erdogan.
On the one hand, we will closely work on Albania’s gasification project and start of tangible work on the Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline project would be an extremely important initial step as this pipeline, through the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will connect Albania with the region’s upper part, namely Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, practically turning Albania into a major gas distribution hub.
On the other hand, we have also discussed ways to sit together, the Albanian, Azeri and Turkish experts to explore the possibility of building a new refinery.
We will celebrate the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties with Azerbaijan next year that will bring good news, both in terms of confirming what we have agreed on or in terms of opening another chapter for the next 10 years.
What I would like to underline is that an important initial step will be taken in Tirana very soon in terms of delivering on this new chapter on closer cooperation in the area of providing gas supply to Albania and the region, as well as consequently regarding extension of Albania’s internal gas supply network.
Asked whether a deadline is insight as to when Albanians will eventually gain access to such investments and how long is projected to take for completion of all stages of the investment, PM Rama noted that investment projects always depend on a series of successive steps, studies, projects and funding issues and as such they are not things that can happen overnight or in the blink of an eye. However, through this relationship we have laid the foundations. The pandemic was a major obstacle as it intervened aggressively. In the meantime, despite the many troubles and woes, the war in Ukraine has also accelerated this process.
