Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

French Foreign Trade Minister Nicole Bricq will visit Azerbaijan in late November, French Ambassador Azerbaijan Pascal Monnier told journalists on November 14.

According to Monnier, the purpose of the visit is to participate in a meeting of the Azerbaijan-France commission on economic cooperation.

The previous meeting of the commission was held in Paris in September, 2011. The Azerbaijani delegation was led by Finance Minister Samir Sharifov, the French side, in turn, was represented by Secretary of State for Foreign Trade under the Minister of Economy, Finance and Industry Pierre Lellouche.

During the last meeting, the sides decided to strengthen and expand cooperation between TOTAL and GDF SUEZ companies with Azerbaijan's state energy company SOCAR. The leading role of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline in the EU's energy security was also noted.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and France were established in 1992. The trade turnover between the two countries reached about $2 two billion in 2012.

The legal framework for bilateral cooperation includes 42 documents, and about 40 French companies operate in Azerbaijan.