Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, speaking to the press following a high-level meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev, said, "We understand the importance of this project both for Azerbaijan's domestic and foreign policies."

"It is important for us, too, as an alternative to export energy resources," added Nazarbayev, who is well aware that the pipeline will help reduce both Kazakhstan's and Azerbaijan's dependence on Russian pipelines and the costs that such a move entails.

The US is a strong supporter of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline because it will help the West access Central Asian oil sources, reduce the dependence on Middle Eastern oil and, perhaps most importantly, does not pass through Russian territory.

BTC is scheduled to be fully operational by 2005.