Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Lithuania Hasan Mammadzade has met with Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas Loreta Graužinienė.

According to the Azerbaijan's embassy, the sides discussed Azerbaijani-Lithuanian relations, inter-parliamentary ties, as well as issues of the further cooperation.

Azerbaijan's ambassador congratulated Graužinienė on her election as the Speaker of the Lithuanian Seimas and expressed satisfaction with the level of inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries, as well as emphasized the importance of bilateral relations in all fields. He said that the number of members of the friendship group with Azerbaijan in Lithuanian Parliament increased from 21 to 49.

Graužinienė, in turn, expressed regret that a group of diplomats had taken measures that could harm the relations with Azerbaijan, and said that such initiatives aimed at damaging the bilateral relations will be suppressed in future.

On July 8, recordings of three phone conversations between Lithuanian diplomats (4 parts of the records in total) were published on youtube.com. The two recordings mention relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan. During the conversation, the interlocutors reportedly discussed their own point of view about the relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, explicitly expressing a pro-Armenian position.

After this Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė has recalled the country's ambassadors to Azerbaijan and Hungary over the scandal.

During the meeting the two sides also discussed Graužinienė's upcoming visit to Azerbaijan in 2014.

Currently the Azerbaijan-Lithuania inter-parliamentary friendship group as well as the intergovernmental commission on cooperation between the two countries continues work. Its third meeting was held in Vilnius this year and the next year it is planned to be held in Baku.

According to statistics of Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee, foreign trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Lithuania increased by 9.4 percent in January-September 2013 compared to the same period last year and reached $17.58 million. During 2013, Azerbaijan's imports increased by 12.2 percent and reached $15.7 million, while exports decreased by 9.5 percent and reached $1.9 million.