Ilham Aliyev and Mikheil Saakashvili held talks in Baku on 24 May on the eve of the ceremony to mark the pumping of the first Caspian oil into the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) export pipeline, Georgian and Western agencies reported. Saakashvili said during those talks that the BTC pipeline, together with the gas pipeline from Baku via Tbilisi to Erzerum that will export natural gas from Azerbaijan\'s offshore Shah Deniz field, is \"very important for our independence and development,\" and will put an end to the dependence of the entire South Caucasus, including Georgia, on external energy supplies. Aliyev also met on 24 May with Kazakhstan\'s President Nursultan Nazarbaev, who again affirmed his country\'s commitment to export part of its Caspian oil via the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Representatives of the two countries did not, however, sign the anticipated agreement on transporting crude from Kazakhstan via the Baku-Ceyhan route. Azerbaijani presidential administration head Ramiz Mekhtiev told journalists that experts \"continue to work\" to resolve unspecified problems connected with that agreement. The two sides did sign an Agreement on Strategic Partnership together with several other bilateral agreements on inter-governmental cooperation. (RFE/RL)