The leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Hungary signed an agreement on laying an underwater electric cable under the Black Sea to provide Azerbaijani energy to Europe at a meeting in Bucharest on December 17, RFE/RL's Romanian Service reports.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis called the project “crucial” and “ambitious.”
The nearly 1,200-kilometer cable will convey electricity from Azerbaijan and Georgia to Romania and Hungary. The project is to be completed within six years.
The project is part of the European Union’s drive to reduce reliance on Russian energy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attended the signing and said the EU was ready to provide financial support for the project following a feasibility study.
She said the cable would “help reinforce our security of supply.”
Iohannis emphasized that the project represents an important step in strengthening European energy security and building cooperation in the Black Sea region.
“Given the current security context due to the military aggression against Ukraine, we must cooperate better and show more solidarity to address current problems,” he said.
Von der Leyen added that the project “could bring considerable benefits to Georgia, a country with a European destiny.”
“It could turn that country into an electricity hub and integrate it into the EU electricity market,” she said. “The cable under the Black Sea could carry electricity to our neighbors in Moldova and the Western Balkans and, of course, to Ukraine.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has the warmest relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin among EU leaders, praised the project, noting that “the times of cheap raw material imports from Russia are over.”
“We want to have economic growth and security,” Orban said. “We are here together because we agreed to identify new sources of energy for Europe.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also hailed the initiative as “a new ‘bridge’ from Azerbaijan to Europe.”
