Early Development Other

On 17 December 2022 in Bucharest, the governments of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed the "Agreement on a strategic partnership in the field of green energy development and transmission". The agreement was signed at head-of-state / head-of-government level by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister of Romania Nicolae Ciuca, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili and Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban, with President of Romania Klaus Iohannis and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen attending the signing ceremony. The agreement is the foundational political and diplomatic framework underpinning the Black Sea Submarine Cable Project, committing the four governments to cooperate on the construction of a sub-sea HVDC interconnection from the South Caucasus to Southeast Europe to enable cross-border transmission of renewable electricity, strengthen regional energy security, diversify supply, and integrate Caspian-basin generation into the European market. It set the institutional stage for the subsequent formation of the Green Energy Corridor Power Company (GECO) joint venture in September 2024 between the four national TSOs (AzerEnerji, GSE, Transelectrica and MVM) tasked with implementing the project.