TBILISI, Georgia (ArmRadio)—The Georgian authorities have assured that by agreeing to transit Russian gas to Armenia, Georgia will emphasize the importance of economic and political rapprochement with the neighboring country.
Under the pressure of the opposition, the authorities have revealed some details of the deal with Gazprom. Georgian Deputy Minister of Energy Mariam Valiashvili has said that “had Tbilisi not agreed to the terms offered by Moscow, the transit of gas through Georgia would be terminated and Armenia would get gas from Iran.”
“The existence of the Iran-Armenia gas pipeline is no secret to anyone. The capacity of the pipeline is 2.3 billion cubic meters, which is much more than Armenia’s demand. In case the demands increase, it will be possible to quickly reshape the infrastructure, just as Russia did in case of Ukraine, where such infrastructure did not exist at all,” Valiashvili said.
This statement raised an even greater wave of criticism on the part of Georgia. Georgian MP David Darchiashvili says that “Georgia should first think about its interests rather than those of the neighboring country.”
“Negotiations on the deal were held behind closed doors, and the society does not have enough information about the content of the agreement. We have to be cautious with Russia on such important issues, as it is a matter of our national security,” Darchiashvili said.
“Georgian MP David Darchiashvili says that “Georgia should first think about its interests rather than those of the neighboring country.”
It is in Georgia’s best interest to have an economically stable neighbor. Georgia does get a transit fee for the gas, asking for more is just to be greedy.
Oposition is greatly mistaken if they think, that Georgian Government can leverage Armenia, to force concessions from Russia.