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Russian-Azerbaijani Relations Reach New Level Of Strategic Partnersh

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  • Russian-Azerbaijani Relations Reach New Level Of Strategic Partnersh

    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
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