PM praises Black Sea submarine cable project as “Georgian initiative"

Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday stressed the importance of the recently signed Black Sea submarine cable international project and said the endeavour was a “Georgian initiative", in remarks to the Ambassadors Conference in Tbilisi.

Speaking at the event bringing together heads of Georgian diplomatic missions and representatives of the foreign office in end-of-year review of foreign policy outcomes, Garibashvili said the energy project - signed earlier this month between Azerbaijan, Georgia, Hungary and Romania - had been initiated during his visit to Brussels last year.

The initiative involves the construction of a high-voltage underwater transmission grid to connect the power transmission lines and systems of the four countries and allow the export of green energy to Europe.

• Georgia, Azerbaijan, Romania, Hungary sign “deal” on Black Sea Submarine Electricity Cable project

I had [the initial] conversation about this project last year, when I was on one of my visits to Brussels, and we presented it as one of our flagship projects”, the PM told the diplomats.

“It was after this that active negotiations began with our European partners, with our neighbour and friend state Azerbaijan [as well as] with Romania - which is also our strategic partner and friend state - [before further work began] on the implementation of this project", Garibashvili said.

The head of the Government called the deal a "strategic, historic project” that would "further strengthen" Georgia's sovereignty, energy security and independence - an outcome he said would "naturally affect the country and its people".