Caspian Energy (CE): Mr. Levits, how would you assess the results of the visit made to Azerbaijan early in March?
Egils Levits, Fmr. President of the Republic of Latvia: Latvia and Azerbaijan have built stable bilateral ties and Latvia is keen to continue political dialogue on all levels. Local governments in both countries have already signed 14 different cooperation agreements, while Latvia and Azerbaijan will mark the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2024. Economic relations between Latvia and Azerbaijan have been on the rise in recent years. We are ready to discuss deeper cooperation in areas such as information and communications technologies, smart energy and green technologies. Transport and logistics are another sector. Azerbaijan is key for EU’s efforts to diversify natural gas suppliers and routes, thereby strengthening Europe’s energy independence. We would like to expand this cooperation to renewables.
Latvia is one of those NATO member states that support ever closer cooperation between the Alliance and Azerbaijan in scope of the Partnership for Peace initiative. It is committed to keep Latvian embassy in Baku as the Allied contact point embassy until 2024.
Latvia is ready to contribute to stronger international organisations and rules-based international order – a goal that could be pursued more successfully together with Azerbaijan, and in the build-up to Latvia’s candidature to the UN Security Council in 2025.
CE: What are your impressions of the 10th Global Baku Forum held with your participation?
Egils Levits: It was an honour and great pleasure to participate at the opening of the 10th Baku Global Forum in the spring of 2023. In times when the world is changing rapidly and so unpre
dictably, we need truly global dialogue. The insights of current and former leaders assembled at the Baku Global forum are founded on real experience.
I was especially glad to hear the growing support for the establishment of an ad hoc international tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression against Ukraine. It is of utmost importance that the international community responds to such a grave attack on the international rules-based order, embodied in the UN Charter since 1945.
This was my message also when introducing the discussion on how to foster resilience in the face of multiple crises and threats to security of both states and individuals.
CE: Cooperation in which sectors of the economy promotes the establishment of much closer relations between our countries?
Egils Levits: Historically the Latvian companies have been strong in exporting to Azerbaijan products from the traditional sectors of agriculture, food and pharmaceuticals. However, we would like to add value to our trade relations in Azerbaijan by offering Latvian smart city, green technology and logistics solutions.
For Azerbaijan companies it is important to know that we are in the centre of the innovative North European region, and we can become gateway to European single market for your companies.
During the recent visit the Director General of the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, Kaspars Rožkalns, signed the Memorandum of Understanding with its counterpart – the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The main cooperation areas outlined in the memorandum are bioeconomy, digitalization and biomedicine, with a special emphasis on pharmaceutics. Transport and logistics are an area where we see cooperation increasing. In Ma
