Baku, Azerbaijan, Mar. 13
By Anakhanum Hidayatova – Trend:
Latvia highly values open and constructive dialogue between the Latvian and Azerbaijani presidents, parliamentarians and government ministers, said Latvia’s President Raimonds Vejonis in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“I plan to visit Azerbaijan to participate in this month’s Baku forum [5th Global Baku Forum]. The Minister of Foreign Affairs [Edgars Rinkevics] recently visited Azerbaijan, the Speaker of Parliament [Inara Murniece] visited Azerbaijan last October,” noted Vejonis adding that other visits are in the process of preparation.
Latvia and Azerbaijan have well established cooperation, he said, adding that “there is huge potential for further expansion of our relations, especially in economic and trade areas.”
“Recent bilateral trade volume does not reflect the real economic potential between our countries and we consider that there is still unused potential to foster bilateral economic relations,” noted the Latvian president. “As perspective areas for closer economic cooperation we consider pharmacy and food processing as well as metal industry, green technologies, agriculture, construction and tourism.”
He added that Latvia is interested to cooperate with Azerbaijan in land transport connections.
ZUBR container train connecting transport hubs in the Baltic, Black and Caspian Sea regions could be used to attract cargo deliveries from Azerbaijan, said Vejonis.
He further said that Azerbaijan is an important partner of the European Union in energy and transit sectors.
“We highly value the role of Azerbaijan in implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor, that will allow to diversify energy supply sources and routes, as well as improve energy security, which are all important goals of EU Energy Union,” noted the Latvian president.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Vejonis said that Latvia believes that Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be resolved only by using peaceful means, based on principles of international law.
Latvia supports dialogue between highest officials of Azerbaijan and Armenia on conflict settlement, he added.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.