Vzglyad.az had an interview with Moldovan political analyst, doctor of sciences in history Ruslan Shevchenko about Prime Minister of Moldova Natalia Gavrilitsa's visit to Azerbaijan.
- What are the main reasons for Prime Minister of Moldova Natalia Gavrilitsa's visit to Azerbaijan?
- Moldova's Prime Minister's visit to Baku and her meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is a direct continuation of the visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova Andrei Spinu to Azerbaijan in February 2022 and his meetings with Azerbaijani leaders, in particular, Minister of Energy Parviz Shahbazov. During that meeting, which was held within the framework of the meeting of the 8th Consultative Council of the Southern Gas Corridor, Andrei Spinu told Shahbazov about the situation with natural gas supplies to Moldova, which is under constant threat of collapse due to many years of intimidation by Gazprom and the highest Russian leadership. As Moldova has no other gas suppliers, this could provoke an energy and economic catastrophe in our country with unpredictable consequences (economists do not even undertake to calculate the scale of possible losses in this case. Obviously, it will be huge). To prevent this and get rid of Gazprom's gas monopoly, Spinu offered the Azerbaijani side cooperation in this area on a mutually beneficial basis. Azerbaijan's energy minister, in his turn, responded positively to this proposal, saying that Azerbaijan is ready to initiate a dialogue with parties interested in expanding the Southern Gas Corridor.
Now we see the transition to the next stage. Moldovan PM hopes to discuss it with the leadership of Azerbaijan and personally President Ilham Aliyev with consideration of Azerbaijan's plans to increase gas supplies to the West, the possibility of including Moldova in the list of recipient countries. It is the main purpose of her visit to Azerbaijan.
- Apart from the gas issue, are there any other issues of interest to the Moldovan side?
- The Moldovan side is interested in the import of Azerbaijani oil products, fertilizers, projects in the field of electricity, as well as cooperation in the field of viticulture and winemaking that has been going on for many years. Here, our specialists continue to assist their Azerbaijani colleagues in the development of these industries. Finally, this visit should give impetus to the activities of the intergovernmental Moldovan-Azerbaijani commission on trade and economic cooperation, which has not been functional over the recent years.
- In you view, what expectations of the Moldovan side can be implemented in practice?
- Almost all of these tasks seem to be quite feasible, especially since most of them have a long-term backlog and they are already being implemented in practice. The problem is, perhaps, only the key issue for Moldova today: gas supplies within the Southern Gas Corridor (Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum-Fier (Albania)-Brindisi (Italy). A branch to the north-west, from Malkoclar (north-western Turkey) and further through Bulgaria, western Romania, Hungary and further to Europe. In Romania, this branch should be connected to gas pipelines already existing there, and Azerbaijani gas will be supplied to Moldova through the Iasi-Ungheni-Chisinau gas pipeline completed in recent years. Spina and Gavrilitsa were informed, but the fact is that today this branch to Romania is only under construction and the deadlines for its completion have not yet been unveiled. Perhaps, Moldovan PM's visit will accelerate its completion and the final dismantlement of our country's one-sided gas dependence on 'Gazprom'.
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