The President of Azerbaijan Ilkham Aliev arrived in Georgia with an official visit. The tête-à-tête meeting between the President of Georgia and the President of Azerbaijan was held in Batumi. The main topics of discussion were bilateral relations and cooperation in energy sphere. The issue of tourism development was also discussed during the meeting. IlkhamAliev stated that the number of tourists coming from Azerbaijan to Georgia is increasing every year. The representatives of the two governments attended an extended session. The meeting was finished with concrete results - it was decided to create a working group that will work on the issue of the transit corridor. It includes the transportation of the loads from Central Asia and China to Europe via Georgia and Azerbaijan. The presidents stated that this is the most important project they also paid attention to Karsi-Tbilisi-Akhalkalaki railway and the highway, which will be connected with Baku from Tbilisi via Rustavi.
"We have spoken about creating a permanent working group that will develop the issue of transportation corridor, because load shipment is heavily increasing in the direction of Europe from China and Central Asia. If we take into the consideration the competition we must have exact coordination in order to provide the increase of incomes, employing people, attract investments, by means of mutual activities. These are tremendous projects, as well as of the railway, which is bigger than TransSiberia and many other railways in Europe. There is a higway being built from Baku to Batumi, in 2012 part of four-line Azerbaijan road will come to our boarder, the same can be said about four-line road from Tbilisi to Azerbaijan. This means that Rustavi will turn into the suburb of Tbilisi and it will take seven or eight minutes to get to Rustavi and only twenty minutes to come to the Azerbaijani boarder. For Baku this will be the highway, which will connect Baku with Istanbul via Batumi", the President of Georgia stated.
Mikheil Saakashvili took IlkhamAliev round the photo exhibition where the photos of already realized or ongoing architectural projects are exhibited. The leader of Azerbaijan recalled a visit two years ago and pointed out that Batumi has become much more beautiful. After finishing the official part of the visit Mikheil Saakashvili and Ilkham Aliev walked in the restored part of Batumi. The Presidents wives went sightseeing as well - the First Lady of Georgia Sandra Elizabeth Roeloves hosted Mehriban Alieva.