Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan's government is interested in trade diversification with the Czech Republic, which consists mainly of the energy sector products, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the Czech Republic Tahir Taghizade said on November 13.

"Currently, the volume of bilateral trade amounts to $1.5 billion, and the vast majority of this - about $1.3 billion -is the product of the energy sector: oil and so on," he said. "Now our challenge is to diversify the structure of trade."

The diplomat said that recently there has been an interest by both sides to expand economic cooperation, but the imbalance still persists.

"Our challenge is to extend Azerbaijani exports to the Czech Republic through products of non-energy sector," he said.

According to the ambassador, the sides will discuss the issues of future cooperation at the next meeting of the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation, to be held in Baku on December 9-10.

Co-Presidents of the Commission are Czech Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade Milan Hovorka and his Azerbaijani counterpart Niyazi Safarov.

Tagizade added that the Czech Republic will hold a series of official visits to Azerbaijan next year, including visits by delegations of the Czech Parliament, particularly the upper house of the Senate.

"The plans include visits by delegations of the Czech Parliament, particularly the upper house of the Senate and the continuation of consultations between the foreign ministries in the first half of 2014," Tagizade said.

According to the ambassador, a review of prospects for political cooperation, both bilaterally and multilaterally is also planned.

"There is also reason to hope that the exchange of high-level visits will continue in the future," Taghizade said.

Diplomatic relations between two countries were established in 1993. Azerbaijan's Embassy in the Czech Republic was opened on August 15, 2007.

Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic are interested in the promotion of high-level political dialogue and expansion of cooperation between their legislative and executive bodies. The two countries also cooperate within the framework of international organizations, such as the U.N., OSCE, NATO, etc.