ALL EYES ON AZERBAIJAN

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev paid a working visit to Paris at the invitation of French President Nicolas Sarkozy from 19 - 20 November. During their meeting, the heads of state discussed bilateral cooperation and exchanged opinions on regional and international issues. It must be noted that this was Ilham Aliyev's second visit to France this year - the Azerbaijani leader paid a visit to France at the invitation of the former French president, Jacques Chirac, from 29-31 January this year. Baku and Paris signed a number of bilateral agreements during that visit. This time it was not planned to sign any documents as it was a working visit.

The South Caucasus is of tremendous strategic importance to the European Union and France plays a major role in this grand alliance of numerous states. For this reason, the meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ilham Aliyev, among other things, was an important necessity, especially as the Presidents of Georgia and Armenia had already had meetings with the new French president. In turn, Baku is also interested in developing comprehensive relations with France - for Azerbaijan, it is an additional economic opportunity and a chance to strengthen its position in the international arena. If Nicolas Sarkozy is a new figure in the political life of Europe and the world, Ilham Aliyev is a politician who has been running his state for several years now. There is no doubt that the two leaders had something to talk about.

The meeting was held on 20 November. Before the meeting, the press service of the Elysee Palace said that "France is hoping to strengthen its relations with Azerbaijan". "The pace of economic growth in Azerbaijan is one of the highest in the world: more than 35 per cent in 2006, specifically due to energy. France is interested in developing and deepening economic relations with Azerbaijan against the background of this country's high economic indicators in connection with the development of oil and gas reserves," the Sarkozy administration said.

It is no secret that Paris is extremely interested in projects for the diversification of energy supplies to Europe, in which Baku plays one of the main roles. The point is that France hopes to obtain Azerbaijani gas from 2012. A few days before the meeting between Nicolas Sarkozy and Ilham Aliyev, a ceremony was held in the village of Meric, in Turkey's Edirne Province (on the border with Greece), to open a transit gas pipeline to supply natural gas from the Azerbaijani Sah Daniz field to Europe (by the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline through Turkey). Thus, this marked the beginning of the first stage of Azerbaijani gas supplies to Southern Europe.

Meanwhile, one of the main subjects of the meeting between the Presidents of France and Azerbaijan was a peaceful settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagornyy Karabakh conflict. During this meeting, the presidents were also joined by the French co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Bernard Fassier. It must be remembered that along with Russia and the United States, France is also co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group mandated to solve this problem. Paris is sure that regular meetings between the Minsk "troika" and the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers help "outline the future political settlement of the conflict". The two heads of state also discussed a wide range of issues concerning bilateral relations between our two countries, including the situation in the region, relations between Baku and the European Union, the situation in the South Caucasus and methods of fighting international terrorism. Apart from Nicolas Sarkozy, President Ilham Aliyev also held a meeting with French Speaker Christian Poncelet who said that relations between Baku and Paris "could be an example to regional countries". Poncelet added that the two states are ready to implement a number of joint projects in the future. Specifically, the meeting discussed future prospects for cooperation between the legislative bodies of the two countries. In turn, the Azerbaijani president pointed out that the best indicator of the high level of relations between the two states is his second visit to France this year. It must be noted that in late October, Christian Poncelet met the chairman of the Azerbaijani parliament, Oqtay Asadov, who was paying a three-day working visit to France. Ilham Aliyev also met the general director of the Total group of companies, Christophe de Margerie. The meeting noted the successful cooperation between Azerbaijan and Total, and expressed hope for the further development of mutually beneficial ties.

All politicians and experts, both French and Azerbaijani, described the results of the visit as successful. Specifically, Novruz Mammadov, head of the foreign relations department of the Azerbaijani presidential administration, said that the invitation from Nicolas Sarkozy shows the importance of the Azerbaijani head of state in world politics. "After his election as French president, Nicolas Sarkozy wishes to define his foreign policy and, in this sense, he thinks it important to discuss the prospects for developing French-Azerbaijani relations with Ilham Aliyev," Mammadov stressed. Indeed, the main purpose of President Ilham Aliyev's visit to France was the two leaders' desire to learn each other's positions on multilateral, regional and international issues. And this goal was achieved.