Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Portugal's foreign minister voiced his county's support to the development of Azerbaijan-EU relations.

Augusto Santos Silva made the statement as he was receiving the visiting Azerbaijani foreign minister on November 16.

FM Elmar Mammadyarov's visit to Lisbon opened up broad opportunities for discussion of a number of topics between the two countries.

The parties applauded a mandate given to the EU Commission to launch negotiations with Azerbaijan on strategic partnership agreement.

As part of his visit Mammadyarov met with Portuguese officials to discuss Azerbaijan-EU relations, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as well as possibilities of cooperation between the two sides.

Azerbaijan and Portugal established successful relations despite the geographical distance between the two countries. The representatives of both countries often pay high-level visits and the sides are actively cooperating as part of the international forums.

The ministers expressed conviction that this agreement will have a positive impact on the comprehensive development of bilateral relations between EU and Azerbaijan.

During the meeting the ministers reviewed the current status of relations between Azerbaijan and Portugal. The sides stressed the importance of the development of cooperation in the framework of international organizations and continuation of mutual supports in this regard. They also refereed to the political consultations between the Foreign Ministries of the two countries.

Existence of potential for increasing trade turnover between the two countries was also stressed at the meeting. In this context, importance of taking further steps to further the cooperation in non-oil sector, such as tourism, agriculture, food and light industry was highlighted.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Portugal amounted to $332.13 million, including the volume of import $19.49 million, export $312.64 million during January to September, 2016.

The ministers spoke about the importance of holding business forums to forge contacts between the private companies and business circles of two countries.

The meeting also saw the signing of “Agreement on economic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Portugal”.

Informing his colleague on the latest status of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov underscored that according to the norms and principles of international law and in compliance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council the conflict must be only settled on the basis of territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan.

Mammadyarov also stated that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries at the level of heads of state declared the fact of unacceptability and unsustainability of the current status-quo. He stressed that the attempts to change the internationally recognized borders of states by use of force is unacceptable.

He added that Armenia by resorting to the acts of provocations pursues the deliberate policy of undermining the negotiation process and maintaining the current status-quo based on the fact of occupation.

Reiterating his country’s support to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, Santos Silva underlined that this position based on the norms and principles of international law will be preserved.

At a meeting with Pedro Filipe Soares, Vise-President of Foreign Relations and Portuguese Communities Committee of Parliament, the sides stressed the importance of parliamentary ties and exchange of parliamentary delegations.

Filip Soares said that this visit makes an important contribution to the development of political dialogue and cooperation between our countries. He stated that Portugal supports the development of Azerbaijan’s relations with the EU.

Within Mammadyarov's visit, Baku and Lisbon also discussed the prospects of cooperation in the political and economic spheres as he met Paulo Alexandre Ferreira, Secretary of State Assistant and of Commerce.

Mammadyarov informed the official of the favorable business climate created in Azerbaijan and invited the Portuguese businessmen to the country.

The sides further discussed possibilities of cooperation in areas such as non-oil sector, agriculture, light industry and ICT.

The share of Portugal in foreign trade turnover of Azerbaijan was 2.16, as well as 0.30 percent for import and 3.56 percent for export during the first nine months of current year.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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