Ilham Aliyev: we never tried to compete with Russia in gas exports to EU

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said the republic had never tried to compete with Russia in the sphere of gas exports, Azerbaijan was also not considered as a "replacement".

"With respect to Russia-European Union relationship on natural gas, we never took this factor as something, which we should take into account. We were never trying to compete with Russia, even when Russia was supplying 150 plus billion cubic meters to Europe, and we never were offering our service to substitute," Ilham Aliyev said.

According to the Azerbaijani president, it's absolutely commercial. The Azerbaijani leader noted that Baku always treated its energy policy as business-oriented, never politicized it and never cut the gas supply.

"With respect to our cooperation with the European Union - as you know, in 2021 we signed the Declaration on Strategic Partnership in the energy field. Since that time, we have increased our gas supply to Europe from 8 to 13 BCM. Today, we supply gas to 12 countries - 10 of them are European, and 8 of them are members of the EU," Ilham Aliyev said.

The head of state noted that Azerbaijan is among the leading countries on a global scale. According to Ilham Aliyev, the country is planning to increase natural gas production by up to 8 billion cubic meters to 33 billion cubic meters by 2030.