Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 23

By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:

A number of agreements have been concluded between the Latvian embassy in Azerbaijan and local travel companies, as well as between the Azerbaijani embassy in Latvia and Latvian companies with the aim of increasing the number of tourists, Latvian ambassador to Azerbaijan Juris Maklakovs told Trend.

"Next year, airBaltic intends to operate flights to Azerbaijan six months instead of the previously planned three months,” he said. “Azerbaijani ambassador to Latvia Javanshir Akhundov and me think it necessary to increase the number of tourists from Latvia to Azerbaijan and vice versa."

"I am sure that the main priority in this direction is to operate direct flights between Latvia and Azerbaijan as a lack of flights makes it difficult for tourists of both countries to travel," the diplomat said.

He expressed confidence that a direct flight will give a significant impetus to both the development of tourism and the strengthening of economic cooperation between the countries.

In July 2017, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev paid an official visit to Latvia, where he and President of Latvia Raimonds Vejonis signed a Joint Declaration on Establishing a Strategic Partnership between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Latvia.

The visit also resulted with a memorandum of understanding, signed between the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Transport of Latvia on international combined cargo transportation, an agreement between the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Azerbaijan and the Latvian Ministry of Economy on cooperation in state supervision of safety of construction, and an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in education.