Georgian, Turkish, Azerbaijani Defence Ministers discuss cooperation

Georgia’s Defence Minister Tinatin Khidasheli is paying a visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan.

Khidasheli went there to participate in the fourth trilateral meeting of Defence Ministers of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey today.

Today's meeting will take place in the Azerbaijani city of Gabala.

Photo by Georgia's Defence Ministry

Earlier today the three Ministers laid flowers in the Alley of Martyrs and at the monument recognising national leader Heydar Aliyev.

Before the trilateral meeting, Khidasheli also held separate meeting with her Azerbaijani and Turkish counterparts.

During today’s trilateral negotiations, the three parties will discuss the military and technical cooperation between the countries, Azernews said.

The first initiative of military cooperation between Turkey, Azerbaijan and Georgia emerged in 2013 and was followed by the first official meeting of the defence ministers on the sidelines of the NATO Ministerial in Brussels in June 2014.

Further meetings of the ministers in Azerbaijan's Nakhchivan in August 2014 and in Georgia's Tbilisi in April 2015 put forward the planning and execution of joint training exercises in view of protecting the region's strategic energy-transport infrastructure.

At the last meeting, the defence ministers of the regional neighbours gathered in Istanbul on December 17, 2015 to look though the development perspectives of trilateral military ties.