Tweet
RUSSIAN-AZERBAIJANI RELATIONS REACH NEW LEVEL OF STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 6 2014
6 June 2014 - 3:05pm
Russian Minister Alexey Ulyukayev concluded his three-day visit to
Azerbaijan yesterday. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,
and Dmitry Rogozin, Russian vice prime minister and the head of
the Russia-Azerbaijan inter-governmental commission, will visit the
republic this month.
Such regular visits of high-ranking Russian officials reaffirm
Sergey Naryshkin's statement that Moscow is interested in expanding
and strengthening the strategic partnership with Baku. Ogtay Asadov
noted that Russian-Azerbaijani relations had reached a new level of
strategic partnership.
Azerbaijan is dedicating June to Russia, as noted by Speaker of the
Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov at a meeting with Russian State
Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin.
Vladimir Yevseyev, the head of the Caucasus section of the Institute
for CIS Countries, said that cooperation between Moscow and Baku was
so multilateral that there were several possible reasons for visits
of high-ranking Russian officials to the South Caucasus republic.
"I think it is a matter of realizing contracts for exports of weapons
worth $5 billion, so the appearance of Rogozin in this aspect seems
logical," the expert supposes.
One of the many topics that will be discussed during the visits is
development of integration processes in the Eurasian space to lift
any tensions that may occur in the context of Armenia joining the
Customs Union.
"Certain aggravations in Azerbaijani-American relations are motivated,
firstly, by negative interpretations of the proposals that the U.S.
co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick made for the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, the anti-Azerbaijani statements by
U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar taken as interference
in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. Russia would want Azerbaijan
to regard the situation as the refusal of the OSCE Minsk Group to
resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. In Yevseyev's words, Russia is
concerned about the increase in American transit through Azerbaijan,
forcing Russia to cooperate with the republic more intensively.
"It is principally important for Russia to have Azerbaijan act as a
transportation corridor to transit electricity from Russia to Iran,
an energy corridor," noted the expert. "But I think that we need to
form relations not based on sales of weapons, because this is a means
of war; instead, we need to search for other large infrastructure
projects we could cooperate in together," Yevseyev added.
"Russia is set to improve relations with its partners, one of them
being Azerbaijan. And here, we are tied to the diaspora and many
other things," concluded the expert.
Oktay Akhverdiyev, ex-head of a section at the Cabinet, an economic
expert, has described the prospects of economic cooperation between
Russia and Azerbaijan: "Today, there are about 500 Russian companies
working in Azerbaijan. This means basically two decades and the number
grows every year. Trade turnover grows, it is over a billion. Although
weapons have a big share in this billion."
The expert noted that, in his opinion, relations between the two
states should be intensified, based on mutually-beneficial bilateral
relations: "The problem is that Azerbaijan and Russia should work more
actively and form economic ties based on bilateral relations in the
future as quite firm countries, in economic terms. This is my opinion.
There are other options, but I believe that it would be more efficient
on the basis of bilateral economic relations. For example, we had
very productive light industry in Soviet times. In that case, for
instance, Russia could show interest in the issue. Azerbaijan, in its
turn, having high financial resources, can invest in certain Russian
regions with the Azerbaijani community, to keep them busy, to engage
them in intellectual activities, not just trade. In other words,
taking into account a solution to such a social problem, Azerbaijan
can and certainly should, I believe, invest in certain Russian regions
for this purpose. Of course, all this should be mutually beneficial,
not just a "one-way street" case.
Russian Minister for Economic Development Alexey Ulyukayev and
Azerbaijani Minister for Economy and Industry Shakhin Mustafayev have
recently discussed the formation of a common Russian-Azerbaijani
investment fund. Akhverdiyev noted: "Starting the formation of an
investment fund will mean years of negotiations. If the two states
are the founders, they will need to donate part of their financial
resources to the fund and so on. But then, when the issue about using
the fund will be raised, there could be problems. So I suppose that it
should be reversed: first, they need to find projects to interest both
sides. For example, it can be a pipeline construction or some other
major project that would need big investments and so on. First of all,
they need to discuss and agree that a certain facility would suit
the interests of Russia and Azerbaijan, After that, they will raise
the issue of financing it. Then they can create a clear investment
project. It can be called a fund. Other names can be given to it. They
need to finance solutions to the problem. I know from experience
that when funds are formed, everyone contributes a share and then
starts discussing what to build. Some say they need to modernize
the railways. Someone else wants a power plant or something else. We
get disorder, pointless talks from year to year and everyone sticks
to their own opinion. So I think that we need to start with a joint
project, establish what we both need, then we can find finances for
the cause.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
June 6 2014
6 June 2014 - 3:05pm
Russian Minister Alexey Ulyukayev concluded his three-day visit to
Azerbaijan yesterday. Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister,
and Dmitry Rogozin, Russian vice prime minister and the head of
the Russia-Azerbaijan inter-governmental commission, will visit the
republic this month.
Such regular visits of high-ranking Russian officials reaffirm
Sergey Naryshkin's statement that Moscow is interested in expanding
and strengthening the strategic partnership with Baku. Ogtay Asadov
noted that Russian-Azerbaijani relations had reached a new level of
strategic partnership.
Azerbaijan is dedicating June to Russia, as noted by Speaker of the
Azerbaijani Parliament Ogtay Asadov at a meeting with Russian State
Duma Speaker Sergey Naryshkin.
Vladimir Yevseyev, the head of the Caucasus section of the Institute
for CIS Countries, said that cooperation between Moscow and Baku was
so multilateral that there were several possible reasons for visits
of high-ranking Russian officials to the South Caucasus republic.
"I think it is a matter of realizing contracts for exports of weapons
worth $5 billion, so the appearance of Rogozin in this aspect seems
logical," the expert supposes.
One of the many topics that will be discussed during the visits is
development of integration processes in the Eurasian space to lift
any tensions that may occur in the context of Armenia joining the
Customs Union.
"Certain aggravations in Azerbaijani-American relations are motivated,
firstly, by negative interpretations of the proposals that the U.S.
co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group James Warlick made for the
Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, the anti-Azerbaijani statements by
U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan Richard Morningstar taken as interference
in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan. Russia would want Azerbaijan
to regard the situation as the refusal of the OSCE Minsk Group to
resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. In Yevseyev's words, Russia is
concerned about the increase in American transit through Azerbaijan,
forcing Russia to cooperate with the republic more intensively.
"It is principally important for Russia to have Azerbaijan act as a
transportation corridor to transit electricity from Russia to Iran,
an energy corridor," noted the expert. "But I think that we need to
form relations not based on sales of weapons, because this is a means
of war; instead, we need to search for other large infrastructure
projects we could cooperate in together," Yevseyev added.
"Russia is set to improve relations with its partners, one of them
being Azerbaijan. And here, we are tied to the diaspora and many
other things," concluded the expert.
Oktay Akhverdiyev, ex-head of a section at the Cabinet, an economic
expert, has described the prospects of economic cooperation between
Russia and Azerbaijan: "Today, there are about 500 Russian companies
working in Azerbaijan. This means basically two decades and the number
grows every year. Trade turnover grows, it is over a billion. Although
weapons have a big share in this billion."
The expert noted that, in his opinion, relations between the two
states should be intensified, based on mutually-beneficial bilateral
relations: "The problem is that Azerbaijan and Russia should work more
actively and form economic ties based on bilateral relations in the
future as quite firm countries, in economic terms. This is my opinion.
There are other options, but I believe that it would be more efficient
on the basis of bilateral economic relations. For example, we had
very productive light industry in Soviet times. In that case, for
instance, Russia could show interest in the issue. Azerbaijan, in its
turn, having high financial resources, can invest in certain Russian
regions with the Azerbaijani community, to keep them busy, to engage
them in intellectual activities, not just trade. In other words,
taking into account a solution to such a social problem, Azerbaijan
can and certainly should, I believe, invest in certain Russian regions
for this purpose. Of course, all this should be mutually beneficial,
not just a "one-way street" case.
Russian Minister for Economic Development Alexey Ulyukayev and
Azerbaijani Minister for Economy and Industry Shakhin Mustafayev have
recently discussed the formation of a common Russian-Azerbaijani
investment fund. Akhverdiyev noted: "Starting the formation of an
investment fund will mean years of negotiations. If the two states
are the founders, they will need to donate part of their financial
resources to the fund and so on. But then, when the issue about using
the fund will be raised, there could be problems. So I suppose that it
should be reversed: first, they need to find projects to interest both
sides. For example, it can be a pipeline construction or some other
major project that would need big investments and so on. First of all,
they need to discuss and agree that a certain facility would suit
the interests of Russia and Azerbaijan, After that, they will raise
the issue of financing it. Then they can create a clear investment
project. It can be called a fund. Other names can be given to it. They
need to finance solutions to the problem. I know from experience
that when funds are formed, everyone contributes a share and then
starts discussing what to build. Some say they need to modernize
the railways. Someone else wants a power plant or something else. We
get disorder, pointless talks from year to year and everyone sticks
to their own opinion. So I think that we need to start with a joint
project, establish what we both need, then we can find finances for
the cause.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress