Baku, Azerbaijan, July 31
By Azad Hasanli – Trend:
Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic will sign a new agreement on energy cooperation, Jiri Havlicek, Czech minister of industry and trade, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
“During the January visit of the Minister Jan Mládek [he served as the Minister of Industry and Trade until February 28, 2017] in Baku, it was agreed that the level of Memorandum is not sufficient to assess the state of our energy cooperation. That is why we have come to the idea of concluding an inter-ministerial agreement, which is a higher and more binding form of an international document. We are currently working on this document and internal approval processes are in progress,” noted Havlicek.
“At this moment, I see a real possibility of signing the document in the beginning of next year,” he added.
The essence of the document is to emphasize the strategic importance of Azerbaijani oil supplies to the Czech Republic, facilitate the way to cooperation in the development of alternative energy sources and create conditions for the involvement of entrepreneurial subjects in energy projects in both countries, said the Czech minister.
Earlier, governments of the two countries proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding in the energy sector between the Ministry of Energy of Azerbaijan and the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic. It was assumed that the document will be signed in 2017.
Azerbaijan is one of the biggest oil suppliers to the Czech Republic, and the country accounts for one third of all oil imports by the Czech Republic.
According to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee, the country’s trade turnover with the Czech Republic amounted to $201 million in January-June 2017, some $168.26 million accounted for the export of Azerbaijani goods to the country.