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German ambassador Per Stankina: â€œI estimate our relations with Azerbaijan as stable and prosperous onesâ€

11 March 2010 11:05 (UTC +04:00)

The ambassador updated the participants about the development of relations between the two countries, APA reports. Stankina noted that Germanyâ€™s foreign policy towards South Caucasus republics, especially Azerbaijan covers political, economic and cultural levels: â€œI estimate these relations as stable and prosperous onesâ€. Speaking about the active cooperation between the parliaments of Azerbaijan and Germany, Stankina said there was not a separate Azerbaijan-German friendship group in Bundestag and added that the inter-parliamentary relations were realized by the South Caucasus friendship group.

Touching upon economic relations between the two countries, Stankina noted that the volume of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Germany had considerably increased over the last couple of years.
â€œIf the volume of trade turnover was 1.5 billion dollars in 2006, this figure reached 3.5 billion dollars in 2008. But last year, the trade turnover between the two countries fell to 2.25 billion dollars because of economic crisis. Germany supports the development of free trade economy in Azerbaijan. We help Azerbaijan in realization of 6 twinning projects in energy, standardization and meteorology spheresâ€.

The ambassador said that Germany establishes relations with Azerbaijan on 3 main strategic targets: â€œWe want Azerbaijan to continue its way on the basis of European values. It is the main strategic goal of our relations with Azerbaijan. We also want stability in South Caucasus, it will help to reveal the potential of the region. Azerbaijan is a country with great economic potential in the regionâ€. Stankina said that the third target is the cooperation in energy sphere, to ensure energy security of Europe: â€œEurope depends on energy resources. The duty of each country is to become free from this dependence. Azerbaijan helps us in this work. Azerbaijan ensures 5 per cent of Europeâ€™s energy need. We support energy security. But there is such opinion in public as if we are interested only in energy resources of Azerbaijan. But it isnâ€™t so. We ate also interested in further development of economy, democratic values, municipalities, small and medium entrepreneurshipâ€. Stankina noted that Germany allocated 70 million-dollar grant to Azerbaijan for implementation of different programs during these years.