Georgia will introduce a fee for the second transit delivery of fuel from Azerbaijan to Armenia by rail. This was announced by Karen Ayriyan, director of the importing company "Mega Trade", noting that the tariff amount has not yet been officially disclosed.
The first batch of fuel, amounting to 1,300 tons of AI-95 gasoline, was delivered to Armenia on December 19 by a train of 22 railway tankers. This delivery was historic - for the first time in the entire post-Soviet period, energy resources were directly imported from Azerbaijan to Armenia against the backdrop of the long-standing conflict around Karabakh. By decision of the Georgian government, this transit was exempted from fees on a one-time basis.
After that, pro-government Azerbaijani media reported on possible difficulties with tariffs and a "revision of the political logic" of Tbilisi. The publications claimed that Georgia was allegedly hindering the rapprochement between Baku and Yerevan. In particular, the Minval Politika publication stated the establishment of a tariff of 92 dollars per ton on a section of 111 km - an amount that, according to them, is dozens of times higher than similar rates in Azerbaijan.
On December 11, the Prime Ministers of Georgia and Azerbaijan, Irakli Kobakhidze and Ali Asadov, held a meeting in Ashgabat, but there was no official information on whether the issue of transit tariffs was discussed. Later, on December 18, the problem was publicly confirmed by the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan, admitting that in the absence of agreements, market participants may begin to look for alternative routes for import and export. The final parameters of the tariff policy of the parties have not yet been officially announced.
