Czech President to visit Azerbaijan - UPDATE

Czech President Vaclav Klaus is expected to pay the official visit to Azerbaijan in May.

"The work is underway to arrange a visit of the Czech President to Azerbaijan. He will likely to visit Azerbaijan in May," Czech ambassador to Baku, Radek Matula, told Trend.

The visit wil take place at the invitation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made during a meeting of two presidents at the first summit of the Eastern Partnership in Prague in May 2009.

 Diplomatic relations between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan were established in 1993. The embassy of the Czech Republic has been operating in Baku since December 2009. Two years earlier, the Azerbaijani embassy began to operate in Prague.

The relations between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are developing in many areas from economics to the dialogue in the field of culture.

The visits paid by officials of the Czech Republic to Azerbaijan for the last three years played the important role in intensifying the bilateral relations. Senior representatives of the Czech Republic paid official visits to Baku. Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg visited Baku in 2008, Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, chairman of the Senate Premysl Sobotka, finance minister Eduard Janota and Defense Minister Martin Bartak in 2009.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Finance Minister Samir Sharifov visited the Czech Republic in 2009 (within the summit "Eastern Partnership"), Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in 2008.

Azerbaijan is the largest trading partner of the Czech Republic in the South Caucasus. The turnover is increasing every year. It hit $38 million in 2010. Roughly $37.78 million fall to the share of imports of Czech goods, $0,23 million - the share of export of Azerbaijani goods to the Czech Republic.

Construction trucks, construction elements, the elements for bridge construction, printing machinery, medicines, cosmetics, cleaners, glass products are mainly imported by Azerbaijan from the Czech Republic.

Oil, cotton, hazelnuts are mainly imported by the Czech Republic from Azerbaijan. The Czech Republic covers 20 percent of the country's oil demand through imports from Azerbaijan.


/Trend/