ALL ROADS LEAD TO BAKU

One year after Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev's first visit to Azerbaijan, the Russian head of state visited Baku again - this time on a working visit. Medvedev's schedule was quite tight for such a flying visit. The productiveness of the visit is proved by the documents signed by the parties.

The presidents themselves signed two joint declarations: On the Caspian Sea and on the main principles of completing the delimitation of the state border and distributing the water resources of the Samur River between the Russian Federation and the Azerbaijan Republic. The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan and Russia's Gazprom signed "the main terms of the contract on the sale of Azerbaijan's natural gas". An agreement was also signed between the governments of Azerbaijan and the Kabarda-Balkaria Republic of the Russian Federation on trade-economic, scientific-technical and cultural cooperation. The foreign ministers, Elmar Mammadyarov and Sergey Lavrov, issued a joint declaration on the preparation of an agreement between the two countries' governments on conditions of establishing and servicing diplomatic offices of the Azerbaijan Republic in the Russian Federation and of the Russian Federation in the Azerbaijan Republic.

The very fact that during the past year, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia have held several meetings and signed several important documents during the latest brief meeting reflects the dynamic and strategic nature of relations between the two countries. This was confirmed by the presidents again.

At the same time, it is no surprise that almost all Russian and world media which covered Medvedev's visit to Baku placed the main emphasis on one of the agreements that were reached - the gas agreement between Azerbaijan and Russia. "Dmitriy Medvedev deprives his rivals of hope 'to intercept' gas in Azerbaijan," "Medvedev makes a gas gesture", "Azerbaijan teases Russia with gas", "Russia causes a leak in the Nabucco pipe", "Moscow avoids gas encirclement" and "Azerbaijani gas to go to Russia from early 2010" - this is how press headlines described Medvedev's visit to Azerbaijan.

Yes, energy cooperation is an important component of Azerbaijani-Russian relations. The presidents also stressed this in their declarations. They urged the subject of gas relations not to be politicized and drew attention to the fact that it is only a commercial deal based on mutual interests. Indeed, from Azerbaijan's point of view, it would be illogical to use other routes when there are no transit countries between Azerbaijan and Russia and there is no need to invest in the construction of gas pipelines. The parties only had to agree on technical and commercial parameters. The Azerbaijani president let it be known that the Russian route is only one of the directions of exporting Azerbaijani gas and does not rule out other options for supplies to the world market. "For us, cooperation with Russia in the gas sector is also an opportunity to access a new market and ensure diversified gas supplies. At times, when we hear the word 'diversification', we mean mainly diversification for consumers. But for gas producers such as Russia and Azerbaijan, diversification of supplies is not as important as diversification of supply sources for consumers," the Azerbaijani head of state said.

We should only add that only 500 million cubic metres of natural gas per year will be sold to Russia from 2010, and even the subsequent increase in this volume, which was specified in the agreement, cannot stop Azerbaijan from directing its gas into the same Nabucco. "The gas potential of our country is quite significant, and I can say that this year, the level of gas extraction will be about 27 billion cubic metres per year, while next year we are planning to extract more than 30 billion," President Ilham Aliyev stressed.

On the whole, Azerbaijan and Russia have tremendous potential for economic cooperation. President Medvedev said that last year, the trade turnover between the two countries reached 2.4 billion dollars. Although this year has seen some decline due to the global crisis, Russia continues to be one of Azerbaijan's three major trading partners. According to the results of the first four months of this year, Russia became Azerbaijan's third major trading partner and takes the leading position on the list of exporting countries. Considering the documents that were signed during the Russian president's latest visit to Azerbaijan, we can expect a sharp increase in the trade turnover.

Touching on other results of the presidents' meeting, the sides "took an important step in the issue of the final delimitation of the border between our countries", Aliyev said. "We agreed on the principles based on which we will move forward and sign agreements." The declaration on the Caspian Sea notes a growing understanding "on a number of key aspects of the convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea, which include the delimitation of the water area of the Caspian Sea and the delimitation of the seabed in its southern part, issues of security, use of depths, transit, preservation of the biosphere and so on".

During the visit, the sides also discussed the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. As was expected, President Medvedev confirmed his country's position, which is allegiance to the basic principles of international law. "Naturally, we are talking about the decisions of major international organizations, first of all, the United Nations, and the resolutions that were dedicated to the resolution of the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict," the Russian head of state said. He added that "this conflict has all chances of being solved in the near future". Judging by the words of the Azerbaijani president, Russia's position as one of the mediators is already bearing real fruit. "Today the negotiating process is entering, I would say, its final phase. Dmitriy Anatolyevich and I pointed out today that the talks in St Petersburg this month were quite effective. We managed to take several more steps forward," Aliyev said while commenting for the first time on the results of his recent meeting with the Armenian leader.

On the whole, the results of Medvedev's latest visit demonstrated again that Baku's role in Moscow's regional policy is increasing. At the same time, one of the main factors that prompt the two countries' presidents to start an active dialogue is the leadership of Azerbaijan and Russia in their geographical zones - the South Caucasus and a wider Eurasian area, and the world at large.