GERMANY IS COMING CLOSER

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's official visit to Germany had quite a tight schedule and was sufficiently productive. The visit resulted in many practical achievements in various spheres of the economy and culture. However, the main subject of the visit, which took place on 14-16 February, was energy. In this sense, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of the negotiations in Berlin because the Federal Republic of Germany holds the presidency of the European Union at the moment and thus, acts as a mouthpiece of the common opinion of European countries. According to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, "relations between Azerbaijan and the EU are important both for Azerbaijan and the European Union". In turn, Ilham Aliyev also clearly stated that integration into Europe is a priority direction of Azerbaijan's foreign policy and that the country's oil and gas strategy will continue to ensure the energy security of the European Union based on a search for alternative supplies of hydrocarbon reserves. It must be remembered that Azerbaijan and the European Union signed a memorandum of mutual understanding in the sphere of energy in November 2006.

In Berlin Ilham Aliyev said with confidence that "from a technical point of view, Azerbaijani gas can be supplied to the EU market this year" with the help of existing pipelines. However, Angela Merkel is clearly not going to stop at what has been achieved. In her opinion (i.e. in the opinion of Brussels), it is necessary "to expand the capacity of the pipelines running from Azerbaijan to Poland through Ukraine and to Europe through Greece". We have to point out that these projects totally coincide with the desire of Belarus, Ukraine and Baltic states to start as soon as possible the process of diversifying hydrocarbon supplies from Russia.

During the negotiations with Ilham Aliyev, the German chancellor did not conceal Berlin's plans to become more active in the South Caucasus. In any case, these intentions are part of the foreign policy of the European Union which has been seriously interested in the problems of the region in the recent period. The Azerbaijani president only welcomed this interest. As is known, as a participant in the EU's New Neighbourhood Policy, Baku hopes that Brussels, whose borders came even closer to the South Caucasus at the beginning of 2007, will give an additional impetus to the settlement of "frozen" conflicts on its territory.

As for bilateral economic relations between Baku and Berlin, Merkel said that Germany is interested not only in Azerbaijan's hydrocarbon reserves, but also in the entire economy of the country. Her words are also confirmed by figures - trade between Germany and Azerbaijan is constantly growing. Trade with Germany accounted for 3.5 per cent of Azerbaijan's foreign trade in 2006. The first step towards the further strengthening of economic relations was the Azerbaijani-German business forum in Berlin which was attended by more than 30 Azerbaijani business people and more than 200 representatives of German companies and organisations working in the banking, telecommunications, transport, construction and agrarian sectors. The result of the forum was the signing of six contracts, including an agreement between Bakielektrikshebeke and the German company Siemens AG on the construction of new power stations in Baku, an agreement between the Nakhichevan furniture factory and the German company Bio Ethanol Arneburg on setting up a joint venture in Azerbaijan, a memorandum on cooperation between the Azerbaijani-German joint venture ADES and the German company Mark.AT, as well as a decision to purchase German vehicles worth several million euros. Moreover, the forum held a presentation on "the investment climate in Azerbaijan and trade and business opportunities", as well as open discussions on the subject "Baku - territory of development", which were attended by the leadership of the Azerbaijani-German Business Association (DAWF), the German ambassador to Azerbaijan, Christopher Stanchina, representatives of the companies Siemens AG and Lufthansa AG.

During his three-day visit, apart from Angela Merkel, Ilham Aliyev also met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the president of the Federal Council, Harald Ringstorff, German Minister of Economics and Technology Michael Glos and the mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit. Moreover, the Azerbaijani president held a meeting at the lower chamber of the Bundestag, granted an interview to Deutsche Welle, made a speech at the Konrad Adenauer Foundation on the subject "Azerbaijan in the 21st century: development and prospects" and discussed joint environmental projects with the head of the Succow Foundation, Michael Succow. Aliyev also met representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora in Germany who told him about their activities aimed at neutralising the anti-Azerbaijani campaign of the Armenian community.