What will Poroshenko discuss in Baku?
By Rashid Shirinov
The forthcoming official visit of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with a large governmental delegation to Azerbaijan on July 13-14 is expected to give a new impetus to bilateral relations between the two countries.
Alexander Okhrimenko, the President of the Ukrainian Analytical Center, believes that increasing trade relations will be on heart of Baku talks.
"Poroshenko will likely try to negotiate increase of trade relations with Azerbaijan," he told Day.az.
In turn, Director of the Strategic Communications Center, the Ukrainian political analyst Valentin Voitkov shares the view adding that the meeting may be linked to geopolitical cooperation: “Kiev looks for reliable allies, and Azerbaijan is among such states.”
In this context the experts assume signing of several important agreements during the visit of the Ukrainian President to the country.
Since the collapse of the USSR, Azerbaijan and Ukraine have accumulated strong relations in economic, political, cultural and strategic fields. In 2001, the countries founded the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM), along with Georgia and Moldova. After its establishment, the bilateral strategic relations started to develop rapidly.
Currently, Ukraine initiates the creation of a common economic space with the countries of the Eastern partnership (Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Armenia). Voitkov believes that the sides will exchange opinions on this matter, and some substantive agreements on the promotion of the project will be reached at the meeting.
At the same he supposes the discussion of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, mentioning that to date, Ukraine has an increased influence on the international agenda. The two countries have always supported territorial integrity of each other in accordance with international law.
Overall, Ukraine is one of the main import partners of Azerbaijan. Main goods imported from the country to Azerbaijan are metallurgy, machine building, agro-industrial and chemical industry products. While Azerbaijan exports to Ukraine products of fuel energy industry, chemical industry and agro-industry products. Moreover, Azerbaijan grants Ukraine exclusive conditions for oil supply.
Ukraine is interested in attracting of Azerbaijani investment and development of cooperation with Azerbaijan in terms of tense relations with Russia. Hence, another topic that could be discussed at the meeting is the creation of a new transportation corridor bypassing Russia through Georgia, Azerbaijan, reaching Kazakhstan through the Caspian sea.
Moreover, the two countries can develop their energy cooperation for the further years -- the Odessa-Brody oil pipeline can be used for transportation of the Azerbaijani oil through Ukraine, passing Poland, to the EU.
Speaking of energy cooperation, Okhrimenko also considered the possibility of constructing a new Ukrainian oil refinery in order to process Azerbaijani oil and sale of petroleum products to the European countries.
Recently, the countries agreed on the delivery of 10 Ukrainian AN-178 military transport planes to Azerbaijan. The delivery of the first two aircraft is expected to be implemented by late 2018 while eight planes will be shipped upon a mutual agreement of the parties.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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