Georgia Offers NATO to Transport Cargo on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Route

Tbilisi/24.04.13/Turan-BS PRESS: Georgia offered NATO to take advantage of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway for transporting goods from Afghanistan, said Georgian Foreign Minister, Maya Pandzhikidze, on Wednesday after a Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the ISAF meeting.

The meeting was held in the framework of the NATO Ministerial Council, which was held yesterday in Brussels. According to Pandzhikidze, at the meeting she spoke about Georgia’s participation in the mission of International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan (ISAF), where currently there are about 1,700 Georgian troops.

"Georgia will continue contribute to Afghanistan after 2014. I touched on the initiatives of the government and offered an alliance to take advantage of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars for back transit of cargoes from Afghanistan," said Pandzhikidze.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Bidzina Ivanishvili, first announced the initiative during his meeting with NATO Secretary-General in November 2012.

Pandzhikidze noted, "it is a joint project of the three countries (Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey), which may be of interest to NATO in 2014, when they start the export of goods and military units in Afghanistan."

Georgian Foreign Minister hopes that this proposal will be acceptable to the alliance-02D-