BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 21. The planned 6th meeting of Azerbaijan-Bulgaria joint commission on trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation in Baku this year and a business forum as part of this meeting are among the topical issues, Huseyn Huseynov, Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Bulgaria, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.
He noted that the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria is traditionally based on friendly relations.
“This year the two countries mark 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations. The Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership signed in Sofia on March 4, 2015 during the official visit of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to Bulgaria, constitutes the current basis of relations and has opened up new opportunities for bilateral and multilateral cooperation, as well as bilateral economic ties,” said Huseynov.
The ambassador went on to add that the global COVID-19 pandemic adversely affected the bilateral trade in 2020, however, the trade turnover saw positive dynamics in 2021 and stood at $72.65 million as of the year-end. This figure amounted to $50.3 million in the first four months of 2022 and will grow by the end of the year, he added.
“Crude oil, petroleum products and natural gas account for the significant part of exports from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria. The two countries signed a 25-year contract in 2013 to supply 1 billion cubic meters of gas per year from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria and natural gas transportation began on December 31, 2020. We expect that exports from Azerbaijan to Bulgaria will grow considerably after the commissioning of the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB) in coming months. Although energy prevails in Azerbaijani-Bulgarian relations, the two countries are interested in developing relations in non-oil sectors, including transport, industry, trade, agriculture, information technologies and tourism. In this regard, we work on diversification of trade and increasing mutual investment opportunities,” Huseynov explained.