Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Talks between Azerbaijan and the European Union resumed as part of the existing mechanism of cooperation, Inara Murniece, speaker of the Latvian parliament (Saeima), told reporters in Baku on October 3.

She added that the Azerbaijan-EU relations are developing incrementally.

Murniece pointed out that Latvia is a member of the EU and cooperation within the Eastern Partnership program is among Latvia’s priorities.

Latvia took over the presidency of the Council of the EU in 2015 and during its presidency period, the country paid a special attention to strengthening the cooperation with Eastern Partnership countries, she added.

Azerbaijan is included in the EU program on "Eastern Partnership" adopted on the initiative of Poland and Sweden and approved at the EU summit in Brussels in 2008. The goal of the program is the rapprochement between the EU and Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, Belarus.

“I am very glad the relations between Azerbaijan and the EU are developing,” said Murniece, adding that the possibilities of improving the relations between Azerbaijan and Latvia were discussed during her visit to Baku.

“We also discussed the prospects for cooperation in economy, especially, in transportation and logistics,” she said. “From this point of view, Latvia can offer much, as geographically the country is located in the middle of Baltic Sea countries. The country’s air and sea ports will make it possible to carry out transit operations through Latvia.”

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Latvia stood at $5.36 million as of January-August 2016, or 3 percent less than in the same period 2015, according to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the EU are regulated based on the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement which was signed in 1996 in Luxemburg and entered into force in 1999.

Currently, the EU is the main trade partner of Azerbaijan.

European countries accounted for 46.96 percent of Azerbaijan’s foreign trade in 2015, according to the State Customs Committee.

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