Georgian Prime Minister and Azerbaijani President hailed the “centuries-old” neighbourly relations between their countries in a meeting held during the Economic Forum of the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia running in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Irakli Garibashvili was invited by Ilham Aliyev to the event as a special guest.

The parties discussed the strategic cooperation in trade, economy, energy, transport and logistics, as well as prospects for development of the Middle Corridor through modernisation of railways and expansion of ports and roads.

The construction of the East-West Highway in Georgia and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project were also among the discussed topics. The officials said the railway would become a part of the Europe-South Caucasus-Asia railway corridor in the future.

Garibashvili and Aliyev also discussed the Black Sea submarine electricity cable project, intended to connect the grids of the South Caucasus and European Union member states.

They reviewed security issues in the region and the wider world and expressed hope for a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia over their long-running conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region “very soon”.