Iltimas Memmedov, deputy minister of communications and information technologies of Azerbaijan, said in an interview on the official website of that country's ruling party, New Azerbaijan.
"In the near future, Georgia, Bulgaria and Ukraine are expected to join the project. In December 2012, the 67th United Nations' General Assembly issued a special resolution to provide political support for the project TASIM and recommended the creation of a special alliance on this project," he said.
Memmedov said that currently the project involves five countries (Azerbaijan, China, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey). Telecommunication operators of those countries are working to create a consortium for implementation of the project coordinated by Azerbaijan.
Azeri media quoted a source close to the project as saying that the next meeting of the TASIM participants is scheduled for the first quarter of this year. At the upcoming meeting, it is planned to settle the question of establishing a consortium. In addition, the parties have not yet settled the question of a memorandum of understanding on the project, which is a complex document in its nature. A matter of principle, which is also on the agenda, is the effort to build an optic cable line on the bottom of the Caspian Sea with the participation of Azerbaijani and Kazakh sides.
Trans-Eurasian Information Super Highway (TASIM) project is a major regional initiative aiming at the creation of a transnational fiber-optic backbone targeting primarily the countries of Eurasia from Western Europe to China. Source; BSANNA