Victor Kipiani, Chairman of Geocase, spoke at the international conference - ‘Searching for Integration in The Shadow of The Global Power Struggle & The Turkish World’ - organized by the Ankara Centre for Crises and Policy Studies (ANKASAM).
 

The conference consisted of various sessions and focused on the topics such as the importance of Eurasian geopolitics and the Turkic world in the global power struggle; reflections of developments centered in Afghanistan; regional security issues; security of energy and trade routes; the importance and opportunities of regional cooperation; Belt-Road Initiative, and more.
 

During his presentation, Victor Kipiani reviewed the aftermath of the 2nd Nagorno-Karabakh war in light of the regional context. He stressed that the new world order will be very heavily hinged and premised on regional orders.
 

Victor Kipiani briefly discussed the geopolitical consequences of the conflict and what kind of advantages as well as challenges it brought to all stakeholders namely Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey, Russia, and Iran.
 

According to him, as a result of the war, we are witnessing re-contouring the shape of the South Caucasus equilibrium formed after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
 

‘Nagorno Karabakh was the only conflict zone in the former post-soviet area where Russian militaries were not present and, today, we have them there. Also, as a result of that entry into the region, Russian definitely has strengthened its ties with Azerbaijan and simultaneously got more leverages over the Armenian foreign policy. Although Russia probably seems to be the biggest winner, the Russians will find themselves between rock and hard place, because it requests from them very delicate act for a number of reasons, - noted Victor Kipiani.
 

He also underlined the position of Georgia not to become a party to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict either directly or indirectly and its readiness to provide its venue to the conflict parties to meet and discuss prospects of a peaceful settlement.
 

“Key considerations from Georgia’s point of view are clear and understandable interest that the ceasefire agreement continues and new eruption of war action is prevented, therefore contributing to maintaining at least a minimum order or semblance of order and stability in the broader region as well as maintaining its leading role of the major transport transit hub of the region. We believe that Georgia has a number of leverages when it comes to Georgian transport communications to name but few: credibility, reliability and affordability, high-security guarantees, financial viability, and bankability.” – remarked Kipiani.
 

At the closing of his presentation, Victor Kipiani talked about possible developments in the scope of Russia-Turkey relations, Western interests in the South Caucasus as well China’s position towards the greater Black Sea region and concluded: “I believe that regardless various discussions about multilateral formats, bilateral formats would continue to be the nexus for the foundations of the various connections in the region… It is obvious and undisputable that the South Caucasus is a merger of Geopolitics of the Black Sea on one side and of the Middle East on another side”.