Azerbaijan is an important partner for Latvia in the South Caucasus, as President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis noted during his meeting with the Speaker of the Parliament of Azerbaijan Ogtay Asadov.
During the conversation, the President of Latvia confirmed that Latvia was interested in strengthened relations between the European Union and Azerbaijan and he welcomed that the contacts between the EU and Azerbaijan were becoming more intense. The planned Eastern Partnership Summit in Brussels in November this year will be a good opportunity to expand the EU’s relations with Azerbaijan and other countries of the Eastern Partnership even more.
The President of Latvia stated that given the good political relations between Latvia and Azerbaijan, we believed that there was potential for further strengthening of economic relations. Although the mutual trade volume has decreased in recent years, working on restoring the previous levels and strengthening economic relations were relevant.
“Thanks to rail, port, airport infrastructure, and competitive labour, Latvia has developed into a significant part of European transport and logistics sector. We see good opportunities for cooperation by developing the international North-South corridor from India crossing Iran, Azerbaijan, and Russia to the Nordic countries through Latvia,” indicated Raimonds Vējonis.
The President of Latvia pointed out that Latvia accumulated considerable experience in forestry, so we were interested in the implementation of joint projects in the field of reforestation.
He also called for strengthening cooperation in education and for facilitating that Azerbaijani students would choose for the universities in Latvia.