Ambassador Juris Maklakovs: Next meeting of Azerbaijan-Latvia Intergovernmental Commission to be held in Riga

In an exclusive interview with AZERTAC, Latvian Ambassador Juris Maklakovs has said Azerbaijan and Latvia would discuss ways of expanding economic cooperation at a meeting of the intergovernmental commission to be held in Riga on June 14-15.

The Ambassador highlighted the importance of the meeting: “The main topic of discussion will be economic relationship, and how we can improve this relationship between the two countries. The last intergovernmental meeting took place three years ago, and currently another one will take place in Riga. Both countries are very interested in developing economic relationship. Latvia can offer a different kind of expertise in tourism, agriculture, IT, medicine and education. The final memorandum will be approved and I hope this agreement will boost economic relations in the near future.”

The Latvian Ambassador also commented on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: “I already mentioned that Latvia has from the beginning supported territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and for us it is important that this conflict should be solved in a peaceful way. Such a meeting recently took place in Vienna when the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia met and discussed how to solve the conflict peacefully especially after escalation that took place in the beginning of April. And we as a small country fully agree that only peacefully we can solve such kind of conflict. I am sure that during the next meeting there will be more significant progress in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.”

On tourism cooperation between the two countries, the Ambassador said: “Azerbaijan itself is very interested in promoting this industry. From May 29 direct flights between the two countries and two capitals will be launched. It will promote and improve relationship when citizens of Latvia can travel to Azerbaijan and citizens of Baku can go to Riga,” he added.