Azerbaijan, Baku, Sept. 17 / Trend S.Agayeva /
French President Nicholas Sarkozy will pay a visit to the South Caucasus region on Oct.6-7, Reuters reported.
Azerbaijani Ambassador to Paris Elchin Amirbekov confirmed that Sarkozy will visit Azerbaijan on Oct.7.
He said this is the first official visit of the French president to Azerbaijan in the history of the diplomatic relations.
During his regional visit, Sarkozy will visit Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia. He will discuss the cooperation prospects.
On the eve of Sarkozy's visit, opportunities to develop Azerbaijan- France trade and economic relations will be discussed in Paris in late September.
The sixth meeting of the Azerbaijani-French intergovernmental commission on trade-economic cooperation will be held in Paris on Sept. 23, Azerbaijani Ambassador Elchin Amirbekov told Trend on Friday.
The Azerbaijani delegation will be headed by Finance Minister Samir Sharifov and French delegation will be headed by Secretary of State for Foreign Trade Pierre Lellouche, he said.
Based on the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, the bilateral trade amounted to $ 2.2 billion in January-June 2011.
Azerbaijan announced the discovery of large gas reserves on the Absheron field in the Azerbaijani sector of the Caspian Sea last week.
Participants in Absheron are SOCAR (40 percent), Total (40 percent), and Gaz De France Suez (20 percent).
The contract on the Absheron Field was signed on Feb. 27, 2009, between SOCAR and Total. Later Total sold 20 percent of its equity participation to Gaz De France Suez.
The field's potential reserves hit 350 billion cubic meters of gas and 45 million ton of condensate.