On December 17, at a meeting in Bucharest, the leaders of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Hungary signed an agreement on laying an underwater electric cable on the bottom of the Black Sea to supply Europe with Azerbaijani energy.

Romanian President

Klaus Iohannis

called the project "important" and "ambitious".

The cable with a length of almost 1,200 kilometers will transmit electricity from Azerbaijan and Georgia to Romania and Hungary.

The project is planned to be implemented within 6 years.

The President of the European Commission

, Ursula von der Leyen

, attended the signing and stated that the European Commission is ready to provide financial support to the project after its feasibility study.

She said the cable would "help strengthen security of supply".

Iohannis emphasized that the project is an important step in strengthening European energy security and establishing cooperation in the Black Sea region.

"Given the current security context in connection with military aggression against Ukraine, we must cooperate better and show more solidarity to solve the current problems," he said.

Von der Leyen added that the project "can bring significant benefits to Georgia, a country with a European destiny."

"It can turn this country into an electricity center and integrate it into the EU electricity market," she said.

"A cable under the Black Sea could transmit electricity to our neighbors in Moldova and the Western Balkans and, of course, to Ukraine."

Hungarian Prime Minister

Viktor Orbán

, who has the warmest relations with Russian President Putin among EU leaders, highly praised the project, noting that "the times of importing cheap raw materials from Russia are over."

"We want to have economic growth and security.

We are here together because we agreed to identify new sources of energy for Europe," Orbán said.

The President of Azerbaijan

Ilham Aliyev

also welcomed the initiative as "a new "bridge" from Azerbaijan to Europe."