ISTANBUL

Azerbaijan and Iran on Sunday inaugurated the Giz Galasi hydroelectric complex located on the Aras River that runs between the two countries.

The ceremony, which also commissioned the Khudafarin hydroelectric complex, was attended by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Iranian counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on the border between the two countries.

Aliyev and Raisi held talks ahead of the ceremony, during which the former defined both their meeting and the ceremony as a “beautiful and bright chapter in the history of Iran-Azerbaijan relations,” the Azerbaijani presidency quoted.

Expressing that the project will bring both countries and their peoples even closer, Aliyev said: “The main thing is that the states of Iran and Azerbaijan show a very strong joint political will today, openly declare to their people and the whole world that we are together and will continue to be together.”

He went on to say that relations between Azerbaijan and Iran are an “important condition” for stability in the region, adding that the project will improve the well-being of their people and increase jobs.

For his part, Raisi said they will inaugurate a project the commissioning of which is “of great importance for the two peoples and two states.”

“This in itself is a significant event that very important projects can be implemented between two peoples and two states. Some may not like our meetings and our joint successes. This is important to us,” he said.

In 2016, Baku and Tehran agreed on the construction of the Khudafarin and Giz Galasi hydroelectric projects, which will have a total water capacity of over 1.6 billion cubic meters and the capacity to generate 716 million kWh of electricity per annum.


Work on the construction of the dam accelerated after Azerbaijan's southwestern Jabrayil district, where the two projects are based on the Azerbaijani side, was liberated from Armenian occupation following a 44-day between Baku and Yerevan in the fall of 2020.