(MENAFN- AzerNews)
Elnur Enveroglu read more This week was very significant with the official visit of
Azerbaijani Pesident Ilham Aliyev to Lithuania together with his
wife Fist Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva.
First of all, it should be noted that the recent geopolitical
processes have started to give a great boost to relations between
Azerbaijan and Europe, the Balkans, and the Baltic states.
Recognition and acceptance of Azerbaijan as the most reliable
partner by European countries is of great importance.
The visit of the President of Azerbaijan to Lithuania is a part
of the positive relations and great achievements in the past decade
of Azerbaijan's economic thrive.
Besides, Azerbaijan's rapprochement with the European and Baltic
states has a number of important aspects. One of them is the
growing influence of Azerbaijan in the region and the expansion of
its supporting circle. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan believes and trusts
its European partners in the direction of normalizing relations
between Azerbaijan and Armenia and restoring peace in the region
which vital for the current geopolitical situation as well as
Europe and other countries. It is also undeniable that Armenia is
protected by a number of states. However, today the states that
want to be with a reliable partner like Azerbaijan accord with its
rightful struggle.
Thus, the official visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
to Lithuania was also part of this confidence and friendly
attitudes, and it was marked by a number of important meetings and
signing of multifaceted documents.
Upon arriving at the Lithuanian airport, President Ilham Aliyev
and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva were first greeted with an official
ceremony by the Minister of Environment of Lithuania, Simonas
Gentvilas.
Besides, an official welcome ceremony has been held for
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev at the Presidential Palace in
Vilnius. A guard of honour was arranged for President Ilham
Aliyev.
Following the official ceremony, President Ilham Aliyev and
First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva then were welcomed by President of the
Republic of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda and his spouse Diana
Nausėdienė.
Furthermore, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held a meeting
with Lithuanian counterpart Gitanas Nausėda in a limited format in
Vilnius. Then a ceremony of signing Azerbaijan-Lithuania documents
was held with participation of both presidents and delegations of
Azerbaijan and Lithuania in Vilnius.
As mentioned before, several important documents were signed
with the participation of the ministers and heads of state bodies
of both countries within a meeting.
One of the most important moments of the visit was the
Azerbaijan-Lithuania business forum with participation of the heads
of states in Vilnius. This part of the meeting was also marked by
some points highlighted in the speeches of the presidents.
Addressing the forum, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
touched on several points praising the continuous development of
Lithuanian-Azerbaijani relations as well as business opportunities
in energy sector.
“ With President Nausėda, I think, we laid down a very
solid foundation for our cooperation and established a very active
political dialogue. As I said, we met last May in Baku, then this
January in Davos and now in Vilnius. So, it really demonstrates the
dynamism of our cooperation. So, now it's time for business
communities to engage in a long journey of mutually beneficial
fruitful cooperation, ” Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev
said while making a speech at the opening ceremony of the
Azerbaijan-Lithuania business forum in Vilnius.
In addition, the head of state touched Nausėda on the green energy potential between the two countries.
Emphasizing the opportunities of wind energy in the Caspian and
Baltic seas, the President also underscored the investment
prospects in the mentioned area.
“ Today we broadly discussed with Mr. President the
potential areas of cooperation, and President already mentioned
them. I think that the potential is really high here because we are
moving in the same direction with respect to investments in
renewables ,” the President said, adding that the
opportunities of both countries are immense.
“ Both countries have enormous wind potential in the
Baltic and Caspian Sea. And both countries have this on our agenda.
In our case, though we are on the safe side with respect to energy
security, but still, we want to save more natural gas for export
and to use our nature - wind and sun - in order to produce
electricity, especially taking into account that last July the
European Commission and Azerbaijan signed a Memorandum of
Understanding on strategic partnership in the field of
energy ,” the Azerbaijani President noted.
Besides, the Azerbaijani President has touched on Azerbaijan's
natural gas supply to Europe in the two years.
“ In 2021, our natural gas supply to Europe was 8 bcm,
this year it will be 12 bcm and by 2027 it will reach 20 bcm. I
think this is minimum because the potential is here. We are
producing more natural gas from existing fields. Very soon we will
announce important production from one of the big fields of the
Caspian. And also investments in renewables will allow us to save
natural gas for export.
Therefore, Azerbaijan, as a reliable supplier to Europe,
today exports oil, natural gas, electricity. We plan to export
hydrogen, including green hydrogen. All that is part of overall
strategic framework of our cooperation with European Union and we
are grateful to our Lithuanian friends and partners for a constant
support of Azerbaijan's efforts and European Commission's efforts
to become closer ,” President Ilham Aliyev underlined while
addressing the Forum.
During his speech at the forum, President Ilham Aliyev also
touched on the future economic prospects of both countries. The
head of state noted that alternative means should always be used
for sustainable development and elimination of economic
dependence.
“ Azerbaijan's economy is stable, investments are
friendly and is based on natural resources, but at the same time
now, the main target is diversification. And I think that we will
be able to largely diversify our economy and to reduce dependence
on energy sectors. Though, energy sector will continue to play an
important role for our energy security and energy security of
Europe ,” the President said.
Emphasizing the reliability of Azerbaijan in terms of foreign
investment, President Ilham Aliyev noted that the country's foreign
debts are lower than the gross domestic product and added that the
economy of Azerbaijan is able to maintain its economic stability
thanks to the surplus of international trade turnover.
“ We have very low foreign debt, it's below 10% of our
GDP. We have a stable national currency and I'm sure, will continue
to be stable because we have a surplus of our international trade
turnover, substantial surplus.
And hard currency reserves, which we accumulated in our
State Oil Fund and Central Bank reserves is 10 times more than our
foreign debt. So, stability of our economy is an important factor
for regional economic cooperation and for investment climate
because good investment climate is created not only by having good
legislation. It is not enough ,” the President added.
In his turn, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said during
his speech at the Forum that Azerbaijan is the most reliable
partner and added that Lithuania is always interested in exploring
various opportunities for business cooperation in order to take
advantage of Azerbaijan's wide economic potential.
“ Azerbaijan is an important partner of Lithuania and we
are interested in searching for mutually beneficial opportunities.
We see Azerbaijan as a growing economic power with a huge energy
potential and aspirations to diversify.
Various sectors of Azerbaijan's economy such as
information technologies, logistics, manufacturing, advanced food
industries and renewable energy attract Lithuanian entrepreneurs.
This much we can bring to the table ,” the Lithuanian
President noted.
In addition, the President's visit to Lithuania was also held
with an expanded format of meeting discussions.
The Lithuanian President expressed his value for Azerbaijan's
accomplishments achieved for the past ten years in particular.
The importance of mutual visits of both presidents was
underlined during the conversation. In this respect, the
significance of the Lithuanian President's trip to Azerbaijan and
meetings held as part of this trip were highlighted.
The sides discussed bilateral issues and underlined the
importance of further expanding economic and trade relations, and
increasing trade turnover even more. In this respect, the
cooperation in information technologies, cybersecurity, renewable
energy, investments, transport and other fields was discussed.
During the conversation, the discussions were held on the
transportation matters including projects to connect the Caspian
and Baltic Seas. The Lithuania's support for Azerbaijan's
cooperation with the European Union and NATO was highly
appreciated. The Lithuania's active role in the Twinning projects
implemented as part of the Eastern Partnership Program between the
European Union and Azerbaijan was highlighted. The sides also
underlined the importance of three documents signed at the
meetings.
At the same time, the significance of the Agreement on
cooperation in the field of youth policy signed between the two
countries was noted. The fact that more than 200 Azerbaijani
students are studying in Lithuania and existence of joint
cooperation between the two countries' educational institutions
were commended as a positive factor with further expansion of
cooperation in this field discussed by the sides.
During the meeting, the sides exchanged views on cooperation in
the field of prosecution. The importance of signing the documents
between the relevant prosecutor's offices of both countries was
emphasized.
The fact that Azerbaijani community in Lithuania made
contributions to the country's development and that they are loyal
citizens of this country was hailed at the meeting.
During the meeting, both leaders also exchanged views on issues
of bilateral relations and the normalization of
Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.
President Ilham Aliyev informed his Lithuanian counterpart about
the Azerbaijan's vision regarding the conduct of negotiations
between Armenia and Azerbaijan as well as ensuring security in the
South Caucasus.
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