Azerbaijan To Double Gas Exports To Russia

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (right) meets with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev at the presidential residence in Baku.

Azerbaijan will double natural-gas exports to Russia, under a deal signed between Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR and Russia's Gazprom.

The deal was signed during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Baku today.

Under the agreement, Azerbaijan will export 2 billion cubic meters of gas to Russia in 2011, and further increase deliveries from 2012.

Medvedev and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev discussed bilateral trade and signed a border-delimitation agreement.

Speaking after the talks, Medvedev said they also discussed a recent decision to extend the deployment of a Russian military base in neighboring Armenia, with which Azerbaijan is locked in a long-standing conflict over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Medvedev said the decision was solely aimed at maintaining stability in the region, and that there were "no pitfalls or other considerations" behind it.

compiled from agency reports