He made the remarks at the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Brussels on Monday, the Foreign Ministry told AzVision.az.
“Because of this, connectivity stands high for Azerbaijan both in a bilateral agenda with the EU and in a multilateral track of EaP,” the minister said.
He noted that in the field of transport, the extension of the indicative maps of the Trans-European Networks to Azerbaijan and further to Asia can provide a solid platform to promote regional trade corridors together.
“In fact, port and rail administrations, as well as some private logistics compnies from Georgia, Ukraine Poland, Romania, Austria, Germany are already there with Azerbaijan in some regional trade corridors. That list continues to grow. Many from Europe are interested to partner with Azerbaijan in this strategic trade area. Azerbaijan shares own opportunites and infrastructure with neighbours and the countries in Asia and Europe,” Mammadyarov said, adding. “East-West, North-South and some synergies are possible here as well, especially if we take note of EU’s various cooperation strategies with some Asian countries. Azerbaijan goes beyond its land borders to create more trade dynamic across the wider region, and doing so despite being a land-locked country. Therefore, we have established credible partnerships with the ports from the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Romania, just to name a few.”
The minister pointed out that Azerbaijan continues its strategic partnership through the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) in the field of energy.
“A major part of works on this project have been already finalized. Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) is in the very final stage of construction. We also think about a gradual geographic extension of our Gas Corridor. However, a more predictable environment can attract more natural gas from Azerbaijan to the EU. That’s why it is very important to ensure a regulatory predictability by the EU for the next stages of the development of the Corridor. I would like to use this opportunity to call on my colleagues from some European capitals to do their utmost possible to ensure that the Gas Corridor becomes a joint success of Azerbaijan and the EU,” he said.
Mammadyarov stressed that promoting mobility and people-to-people contacts is a very important dimension of the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation.
“Mobility Partnership, as well as Readmission and Visa facilitation agreements have been immensely contributing to this dimension and Azerbaijani side is committed to the full and effective implementation of these documents. A successful implementation of Readmission and Visa Facilitation agreements may lead to the perspectives of visa liberalization in the near future,” the Azerbaijani minister added.
More about: Elmar-Mammadyarov EU Eastern-Partnership
