BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 3. Azerbaijan is an important supplier of energy resources to Türkiye, the country's Trade Minister Omer Bolat told Trend.
"Oil is transported to Türkiye through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, and natural gas is transported through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline. This increases Türkiye's access to energy resources and makes Azerbaijan an important supplier in terms of energy imports," Bolat said.
As he reminded, Türkiye's foreign trade volume in 2022 amounted to $617.9 billion.
"The volume of trade between Azerbaijan and Türkiye is $6.5 billion, or 1.05 percent of our total foreign trade volume. Moreover, Türkiye ranks second in both exports and imports for Azerbaijan. In the first nine months of 2023, the trade volume between our countries increased by approximately 18 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, exceeding $5.5 billion. Trade between the two countries is balanced and based on the 'win-win' principle," the minister stated.
Bolat pointed out that electrical equipment, metal products, vehicles, chemical products, and textile products are the main exports from Türkiye to Azerbaijan, while natural gas, oil, iron and steel, textile raw materials, and non-ferrous metals are the main imports from Azerbaijan to Türkiye.
"The complementary economic structures of our countries and our trade cooperation provide the opportunity to develop partnership on a productive basis. Azerbaijan is the first among Turkic states with which we have signed a preferential trade agreement. This reflects our deep and strong connections in international trade," he added.
Furthermore, the minister shared information about the distribution of trade by modes of transport between Azerbaijan and Türkiye.
"In 2022, 84 percent of our exports were carried out by road transport, nine percent by air, five percent by sea, and 0.1 percent by rail. In 2022, 74 percent of our imports were delivered through pipelines, 13 percent by road transport, 12 percent by sea, and 0.1 percent by air," Bolat said.