Baku can get mandate to start negotiations on new deal with EU in fall

/By Azernews/

By Amina Nazarli

The European Union can give a mandate to Azerbaijan in the autumn of 2016 to start the talks on the new strategic partnership agreement.

Azerbaijan's Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev told reporters, noting that currently, the discussions on the new agreement continue between the two parties in a positive vein.

Mammad-Guliyev also pointed out that Azerbaijan and the representatives of the World Trade Organization (WTO) expect to hold a meeting in Geneva in early July.

"All the documents have been submitted to the WTO office and we are waiting for an answer," he said. "If such a meeting is held, Russia and Saudi Arabia can also join it."

Relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are continuing, new meetings are planned at the level of the EU committees and subcommittees, the deputy foreign minister emphasized.

Azerbaijan has become a country of direct priority to the EU’s strategy in its wider neighborhood since the last enlargement of the European Union in 2007. Although over the past year, the bilateral relations between the two sides saw tense period, still Azerbaijan affects Europe’s interests, mainly in a regional energy strategy.

The cooperation of Azerbaijan with the European Union is very unique due to the already existing relations and good economic opportunities. The EU and Azerbaijan could cover the areas where they have overlapping interests, particularly energy trade. In geostrategic terms, Azerbaijan is set to see its importance due to the perspective role to act as a bridge between Europe and Asia.

Currently, the bilateral relations between the EU and Azerbaijan are regulated on the basis of the partnership and cooperation agreement, which was signed in 1996 and came into force in 1999.