Azerbaijan's President: Our army has made great achievements

"In the case of army building, of course, not only logistics, but also the professionalism and discipline play a big role.

Both the professionalism and discipline should be raised. Army is a part of society".

The statement came from President Ilham Aliyev speaking at the session of the Cabinet of Ministers held under his chairmanship, the official website of president reports.

He said, those serving in the army are the citizens in the community.

"As in any field, the army may also have errors and shortcomings. But the most important thing is that these mistakes and shortcomings are identified in a timely manner and the government is taking serious measures. We also in the future will implement policies aimed at strengthening the material-technical base of our army, improve professionalism and discipline. Today our army is the leading military power in the South Caucasus. Our army has made great achievements. We will never allow anti-national elements to blacken our army and overshadow it. We will never allow it. And I, as Commander-in-Chief, will never allow it. And the Azerbaijani people will never allow it either, they give and will give an adequate response to the elements trying cast a shadow on our army".

President also add in the past year we also had great success in the energy sector.

"Through the implementation of new oil strategy, the foundation of which was laid by great leader Heydar Aliyev, we became a very serious country in the field of energy in the world. Our oil and gas projects, oil and gas pipelines transformed Azerbaijan today into a really important on a global scale country that produces and exports oil and gas.

In continuation of this policy in the past year, there was also a very important and, I would say a historic event - we laid the foundation of project TANAP. The initiator of this project is Azerbaijan. We have also undertaken the biggest financial burden. At the same time, Azerbaijan takes all the risks, all the technical risks. We can say we have become the initiator of all ongoing projects in the region. We have initiated the construction and rehabilitation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Supsa, Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline. We initiated project of Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline. Project TANAP was also initiated by Azerbaijan. Our leadership in this area has led to excellent results. We not only develop our country, our development simultaneously has a positive effect on the region, creates opportunities for us to ensure the energy security of Europe. Not by chance, in documents signed between the European Union and Azerbaijan, our country was listed as a very important and crucial partner in this area.

The initiative on project TANAP became our very serious step. I am very happy that in a short time, project TANAP received very strong support in the world. The leading countries of the world clearly supported our initiative. International structures supported our position to the same extent.

Project TANAP is already perceived in a regional framework. I am very glad that we are now together with partner countries to take specific measures to implement the project, and in 2013, additional measures will be taken. This project will provide our long-term development. At one time, project Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was also presented by great leader Heydar Aliyev as a project leading Azerbaijan forward. Today we see the great results of this. TANAP project will be a very effective means of providing economic and equally other interests of Azerbaijan for decades. We have a strong will to implement this project. First of all, it is the burning question. At the same time we have the technical capabilities. We have the financial capacity, acquired as a result of previous projects. Our fruitful cooperation with international financial institutions is also growing, and it has a wonderful history.

Today, financial institutions may compete with each other to provide Azerbaijan with loans. Today, we take loans in any amount and at the most competitive price. In fact, I gave an instruction to the government to slightly reduce the number of loans in order to avoid large public debt despite the fact that our national debt is only 7-8 percent of gross domestic product, and it is a rare figure in the world. That is our work in the energy sector is dynamic. Once again I want to say that the essence of our economic policy is to diversify the economy and achieve greater development of non-oil sector. But at the same time the solution of energy issues, our regional projects related to mining and oil and gas are constantly in the spotlight in everyday life.

Of course, I cannot cover in one speech all the work done in 2012. But I'll try to note the highlights. Today we will discuss the results and at the same time, most importantly, we will talk about the plans this year."