Baku, Doha outline prospects of relations

By Azernews

By Amina Nazarli

President Ilham Aliyev’s two-day visit to Qatar on February 26-27 reflected the commitment of both sides to develop bilateral relations, discussed a number of regional and international issues of joint interest, particularly the latest development in the region.

During the visit, President Aliyev held a meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, where the parties discussed investment opportunities in a number of fields and saw the signing of many agreements in a number of fields such as civil aviation, culture, sports, youth, and environment.

It was the second state visit by Ilham Aliyev, which was aimed to explore the scope for bilateral cooperation in light of the two countries' strategic partnership. The first visit took place in 2004, but since then, the leaders of the two countries met five times, including twice with the current Emir.

Azerbaijan and Qatar have good political relations and the positions of the two countries on international issues also coincide. The dissatisfaction is felt in economic cooperation, so recently the governments of both countries' efforts aimed at to fix this situation.

The visit of the Azerbaijani leader to Doha is of great importance and opens a new stage in the development of bilateral cooperation.

Around 30 business personalities accompanied the president in this visit. They were set to meet their Qatari counterparts to discuss enhancing strategic partnership.

The mission included representatives of Azerbaijani companies engaged in production of fruit juices, natural mineral waters, fruits and vegetables, meat and meat products, confectionery, tea, milk and dairy, cosmetology, chemical products.

The leaders of the two countries held an expanded meeting, making a particular accent on rapid growth of Azerbaijan-Qatar cooperation in recent years. They emphasized the importance of expanding Azerbaijan-Qatar relations in various areas, including, agriculture, tourism, culture and infrastructure, and also discussed opportunities for joint investment in projects in other countries and for cooperation in oil and gas sectors.

The Qatari Emir visited Azerbaijan in March 2016 during which the Emir held talks with the President of Azerbaijan and discussed cooperation in commerce, investment, energy and culture.

Recalling his visit to Azerbaijan, the Emir Hamad Al Thani said he witnessed rapid development, stability and security in the country. This creates opportunities for developing both economic and tourism areas, the Emir said.

The Emir stated that reciprocal visits will contribute to the development of cooperation between the two countries.

In turn, President Aliyev recalled his previous visit to Qatar, saying the country has experienced great development ever since.

The head of state highlighted the reforms to diversify Azerbaijan`s economy, speaking of the development of the non-oil sector, saying the main goal is to export non-oil products to foreign markets.

Following the expanded meeting, President Aliyev and Qatari Emir had a one-on-one meeting, during which they noted that relations between the two countries are developing successfully in a variety of fields. The sides stressed the importance of the Azerbaijani president`s visit to Qatar in terms of expanding the relations and determining prospects for cooperation.

Doha and Baku enjoy deep-rooted bilateral ties for more than 23 years, which were crowned by the establishment of a Joint Commission and the conclusion of 25 agreements, including eight agreements during 2016 covering various sectors such as information technology, telecommunications as well as security and military sectors.

The diplomatic relations was established in 1994 starting with the opening of the embassies.

Agriculture can play a big role in the development of Azerbaijan and Qatar economic cooperation if to consider that Qatar has limited production capability in this field. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (the FAO), the proportion of land suitable for agriculture in Qatar is about five to six percent, while in Azerbaijan this is more than half of all land.

Agricultural products makes up 10 percent of Qatar's imports. It is no coincidence that the basis of export mission of Azerbaijan to Qatar, constitute business, operating it in the field of agriculture including producers of dairy, meat, mineral water, tea and sugar. 

Qatar, like its Middle Eastern neighbors, enjoys huge oil and gas reserves. The country's oil reserves amount to 25 billion barrels (9th in OPEC and 13th in the world), while the country's gas reserves reach 872 trillion cubic feet, which makes it third country in the world for natural gas reserves.

A number of agreements on bilateral anti-drug coordination, police training, exchange of information, emergencies and disasters were signed between the two countries.  

The First Session of the Economic, Commercial and Technical Joint Committee between Qatar and Azerbaijan wad held in Baku last year in implementation of an agreement signed in Baku in March 2016 to establish the Committee.

Azerbaijan, which eyes the tourism sector as one of the promising fields in terms of increasing the budget revenues, focuses on attracting tourists from world countries. Given the fact that Azerbaijan and Qatar has a simplified visa regime, Baku is interested in closer relations with Qatar in the tourism sector. The Azerbaijani tourism sector has attracted a growing number of Qatari tourists, who were in the last year almost five times more than the previous years.

In the recent period, Azerbaijan has linked between Europe and the Far East and it also holds the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to the shores of the Mediterranean in Turkey.