BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 19
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Trade between the European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan is a success story, and no crisis has shattered Azerbaijan's relations with the EU, Jakub Korejba, a famous Polish political expert and journalist, candidate of political sciences, told Trend.
According to Korejba, presently the EU countries in aggregate take a solid first ranking in Azerbaijan's foreign trade, with nearly 36 percent.
"The EU is Azerbaijan's largest export market (51 percent) and the second import partner (16 percent). These figures, especially over a longer period, demonstrate that the partners view each other in a strategic manner,” he added. “The relations have not opportunistic, but a long-term character and both sides are being aimed at their development now and in the future, that is, the figures for trade between the EU and Azerbaijan are not an accident, but a trend.”
The expert stressed that if we take into account the low, practically zero bases, both material (infrastructure) and legal, with which these relations began, then the success is impressive.
"The relations were built practically from scratch since for many decades the partners were not only geographically distant but also culturally and politically isolated from each other,” he noted. “Achievement of the current level of cooperation, as well as optimistic, but at the same time quite realistic plans for the future, became possible at the moment when Azerbaijan embarked on the path of independent realization of national interests and began to act in accordance with the priorities that were determined within the country, based on the aspirations of the people.”
“Given all the difficulties of the initial period of relations, both on the part of the EU and Azerbaijan, it’s necessary to emphasize the critical importance of the political factors in the process of building foreign economic relations," the expert further said.
Korejba also noted that the leadership of Azerbaijan has demonstrated the political determination and strategic foresight of its course, and this state, as a partner, has never let the European Union down from the very beginning and until now, both in deeds and words, which cannot be said about other countries of the post-Soviet region.
“There is a clear understanding among the EU countries that Azerbaijan knows what it wants in the relations and realizes how to achieve this. Such partners are especially valuable in the period of international turbulence associated with the acceleration of many processes and the restructuring of the world order. No crisis has shattered Azerbaijan’s relations with the EU, and this is evidenced by the current figures," summed up the expert.