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By Trend

Azerbaijan and Lithuania intend to elevate relations to a higher level, the Speaker of the Seimas (Parliament) of Lithuania Viktoras Pranckietis, who recently paid a visit to Azerbaijan, said in an exclusive interview with Trend.

Pranckietis noted that the purpose of his visit was to intensify bilateral relations and bring them to a higher level not only in the political, but also in the economic sphere.

In recent years, contacts between Azerbaijan and Lithuania have not been active and the current level of trade cannot be considered satisfactory, the Seimas speaker said, adding that the two countries have great potential for further development of relations.

"The last visit of a Lithuanian Parliament speaker to Azerbaijan took place eight years ago. A lot of time has passed since then. We have now renewed relations between our parliaments and contacts within the framework of an inter-parliamentary group between Lithuania and Azerbaijan. We have a very large inter-parliamentary group with Azerbaijan. The group includes 64 members of the Lithuanian parliament, which makes up almost half of the entire parliament. From the Azerbaijani side, 14 people are participating in the inter-parliamentary group. The Lithuanian parliamentarians who were on a visit to Baku are also from this group," Pranckietis said.

The speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas noted that this visit was quite fruitful.

"During the meeting with Azerbaijani officials, including the speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament, the prime minister, the foreign minister and the minister of economy, we discussed specific steps and put forward specific proposals for the development of relations," Pranckietis noted.

Pranckietis stressed that Lithuania, as an EU mermber, is interested in the signing a new partnership agreement between the EU and Azerbaijan.

"Of course, we are interested in the agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU, as well as visa issues between the two sides. Azerbaijan is also one of the participants in the Eastern Partnership program, which turned 10 this year," the Lithuanian parliamentary speaker said.

Pranckietis also expressed support for the negotiated settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Lithuania supports the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict through peaceful negotiations. It is necessary to sit at the negotiating table to resolve this conflict. This issue is on the agenda. The issue of resolving this conflict needs to be raised throughout the EU, so that everyone understands that this problem must be resolved," the speaker added.

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