AZERBAIJAN - ISRAEL: A FRANK CONVERSATION

The three-day official visit to Baku by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, during which he held intensive talks with almost the entire senior leadership of Azerbaijan, reaffirmed

the intensification of friendly dialogue between the two countries. Although this dialogue took a significant leap forward during last year's visit to Azerbaijan by Israeli President Shimon Peres, the Israeli foreign minister's visit to Baku, the first ever in the history of Azerbaijani-Israeli relations, indicates the beginning of a qualitatively new stage in bilateral cooperation.

"The friendly relations between Azerbaijan and Israel have deep roots," said Avigdor Lieberman in Baku. By way of confirmation, he cited the activities of the Jewish community in Azerbaijan. At a meeting with representatives of the Jewish community, Lieberman expressed his confidence in the future of Azerbaijani-Israeli relations and specifically touched on the "model of President Ilham Aliyev's policy: a combination of historical tradition, cultural heritage and the values of the modern world - tolerance between denominations. This model is exemplary and we hope that it will spread throughout the region."

During his visit to Baku, Lieberman discussed the full range of economic relations; the positive developments here are illustrated by last year's trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Israel, which amounted to $4.25 billion. Moreover, our country has more trade with Israel than any other Muslim country - mainly due to the fact that it is the second largest supplier of crude oil and petroleum products to Israel, after Russia (about 20 per cent of the "black gold" consumed by the Israeli market comes from Azerbaijan).

However, the prospects for Azerbaijani-Israeli economic relations are not determined solely by cooperation in the oil sector. During the Israeli foreign minister's talks with President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov, the parties examined possible joint projects for the use of clean energy - solar and wind energy. According to Lieberman, the two sides have already developed a number of projects in this area.

An important element of the Baku talks was a discussion on the planned bilateral abolition of the visa regime. In the first phase of this initiative, proposed by the Israeli side, it might be possible to cancel the visa regime for diplomatic passport holders. According to Lieberman, "this is the first stage, preceding the lifting of the visa regime. This was the case with all other states with which Israel has lifted the visa regime."

The Israeli foreign minister's visit to Baku also proved the development of political dialogue between the two countries, which is attracting greater attention from regional powers. However, for Azerbaijan, partnership with Israel is particularly important in the context of the Jewish state's support for the territorial integrity of our country. This position was reiterated in Baku by Lieberman, who spoke out for a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

However, not only is Baku interested in Israel taking an active position on the Karabakh settlement, the Israeli foreign minister expressed his country's interest in Azerbaijani mediation in the process of resolving the Middle East problem. Expressing hope for a swift resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, Avigdor Lieberman called on the Azerbaijani president to persuade Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to resume the peace talks. Abbas will visit Baku soon.

Meanwhile, our country can play a positive role in the normalization of the Turkish-Israeli dialogue, which has deteriorated significantly over the last year. Ankara, as is known, has protested strongly against Israeli policy on Palestine. Actually, the crisis in the dialogue between Ankara and Tel Aviv came about after Israel carried out a military operation in the Gaza Strip in late 2008 - early 2009. While in Baku, Lieberman said that, over the past decades, Israel has sought to strengthen relations with Turkey, but Ankara's recent moves are unacceptable to the Jewish state. In this regard, the Israeli foreign minister called on Turkey to change its position regarding Israel.

Azerbaijan, for its part, makes it clear that it is interested in the swift establishment of friendly relations between its friends - Turkey and Israel - although the positions of our countries may not be the same on all issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation. The particularity of the Azerbaijani-Israeli dialogue was also noted by Avigdor Lieberman. "The parties do not always agree on everything, but they always support each other and speak candidly. Cooperation between Israel and Azerbaijan can serve as a model of cooperation for other countries, showing how they can engage in dialogue and respect each other, even if they do not agree on everything," the Israeli minister said. And we cannot but agree with that.