Greece interested in increasing trade, ICT cooperation

By Azernews

By Leman Mammadova

Azerbaijan and Greece continue successful cooperation in energy projects and are keen to continue mutual investments and expand of trade relations.

Azerbaijan-Greece Intergovernmental Commission, the working and friendship groups operating in the parliaments of the two countries, Greece-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce and Greek-Azerbaijani Friendship Society "Gala" are the main cooperation tools.

Greece is interested in expansion of relations with Azerbaijan in the fields of information technology, trade, agriculture, food industry, construction and tourism, Greek Ambassador to Azerbaijan Nikos Canellos told Trend.

He highlighted the successful cooperation in the energy field and underlined that it is time to open a new page of cooperation.

Referring to the trade relations between Azerbaijan and Greece, Canellos noted that the level of bilateral trade does not reflect the existing potential.

“Greece is interested in exporting new products to Azerbaijan, mainly aluminum profiles, pharmaceuticals and food,” he stressed.

Both Azerbaijan and Greece are full members of Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

Trade turnover with Greece amounted to $150.6 million in January-July 2019, of which $143.1 million accounted for the export of Azerbaijani products.

Energy security is an important part of the Greek-Azerbaijani relations. Greece is the first EU country to receive Azerbaijani gas via TAP as part of energy cooperation between Azerbaijan and EU.

The TAP project is one of the strategic objectives of the EU in the energy security and diversification of energy sources, chosen as the shortest and direct way to export natural gas from Azerbaijan to the European markets.

The TAP and Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB), which envisage transportation of Azerbaijani gas to Europe, have been named among important international energy projects of Greece, according to the Greek Integrated Energy and Climate Plan for the Period from 2021 to 2030.

Estimated at 4.5 billion euros, TAP is a part of Southern Gas Corridor project that envisages transportation of gas from Azerbaijani Shah Deniz-2 gas field to Greece and southern Italy across the Adriatic Sea through Greece and Albania, and involves designing, construction and operation of the natural gas pipeline.

The initial capacity of TAP will be 10 billion cubic meters of gas per year with the possibility of doubling it. About 90 percent of TAP pipeline construction works were implemented.