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AZERBAIJAN AND LITHUANIA:  EASTERN PARTNERSHIP FROM THE CASPIAN TO THE BALTIC

First of all, I want to thank my friend ambassador Hafiz Pashayev (with whom we had served in Washington D.C.) for this opportunity to speak at the Diplomatic Academy of Azerbaijan.

Let me start with a quote from Haft Paykar (Seven Beauties, 1196) by one of your greatest poets of all times, Nizami: “Seek knowledge, for through knowledge you effect that doors to you be opened and not closed.” Studying and practicing the art of diplomacy in my view is  about acquiring the kind of knowledge  that helps to open the doors of opportunity and hope, so that old disagreements be resolved, conflicts prevented, and human lives be saved.    

Among friends, we need to make sure our knowledge of each other is constantly increased, in order to make the best of our cooperation. I will therefore speak today on a range of issues of mutual importance, from the development of bilateral relations to how we can best put to use existing instruments of cooperation, including the recently adopted EU’s Eastern Partnership Initiative, in a geopolitical area which is gaining increasing strategic importance both, regionally and globally.

As I begin, I cannot help but note certain parallels between our two countries. Both are situated at geographical, historical and political crossroads. Lithuania links Europe’s West, North and East, while your location in the Caucasus is at the meeting point of Europe’s East and Asia’s West.

Remaining Latin inscriptions carved by Roman centurions show that Azerbaijan has been Europe’s frontier since at least the first century A.D. The Romans who had left those inscriptions had turned back, declaring that no one could live in the hell of Gobustan desert. However, the tenacity and courage of the Azeri people enabled them to prevail over the harshness of the desert and to create a proud and lasting culture.     

Only some 40 miles away from the Gobustan desert here’s the splendid and prosperous city of Baku, the city of solar winds and the cultural capital of Islam for the year 2009. Our capital Vilnius this year holds a similar title- that of the 2009 culture capital of Europe. By the way, today Baku is hosting a joint musical project, linking the two culture capitals.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Azerbaijan and the State Philharmonic of Azerbaijan, the Mstislav Rostropovich Foundation, named after one of the greatest musicians of the past century and a wonderful friend of Lithuania who was born in Baku, is holding a concert of gifted young performers from Lithuania, together with a young piano talent from Azerbaijan, Rustam Zeynalov, from the Bulbul school of Baku.    

The distinct status of Baku and Vilnius as the culture capitals of,  respectively, Islam and Europe, is a rewarding responsibility and a great opportunity for the two cities- and our whole nations- to promote openness, tolerance and understanding through creativity, arts, and the vast heritage our civilisations are known for.

In a world  troubled by  racial and cultural prejudices and fears, in a world where ethnic and religious tolerance cannot be taken for granted and extremisms of all sorts keep raising their ugly head, your country in particular- as the first ever parliamentarian republic in the Eastern-Muslim world with a founding document whose democratic letter and spirit were well in advance of its time-  continues to offer an attractive alternative to those who prefer to pursue moderate Islam, open and able to contribute significantly to building an alliance among civilisations.

Your path of openness and moderation is dear to our hearts, as our own history has been a history of diversity, openness and tolerance, while the cultural heritage of Lithuania’s capital Vilnius is a product of the joint efforts of countless generations of Lithuanians, Poles, Belarusians, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians, Tartars, and sons and daughters of many other nations who had found home and took root on our soil.  

Both our nations declared independence in the year 1918 and the following year Lithuania appointed its first diplomatic representative, the renowned writer Vincas Krėvė to Azerbaijan. Having worked in your city for ten years prior to that appointment, Vincas Krėvė was passionate about Azerbaijan and its people and through his literary works had shared that passion with the Lithuanians.

Today, having gone through dramatic and even tragic periods in our modern history, we have better relations than ever before in our history. There has been an increase in contacts and cooperation projects bringing our countries closer together, both bilaterally and in terms of multilateral cooperation.   

Let me mention a few facts. Last year Lithuanian exports to Azerbaijan increased by 72 per cent, while the total trade turnover between our two countries went up by 60 per cent. We are witnessing the first steps in Azeri investments entering Lithuania, and we hope more will follow.  

To improve our business relations, we need to utilise all available mechanisms, from bilateral business meetings and fora to participation in major business and trade fairs taking place in our respective countries. I am pleased to note that on this visit I am accompanied by a group of Lithuanian entrepreneurs, who took part in the fourth bilateral business forum held in Baku yesterday.

In terms of wider bilateral cooperation, your officers are studying at the Lithuanian military academy and your border guards are drawing on their Lithuanian counterparts’ experience. Our veterinary, customs, and standards officials are sharing experience through joint projects. We are also active in promoting programmes in public health. A bilateral media and communications training programme was completed last year. Lithuania is a participant of the EU’s twinning programmes, within the framework of which EU member states share their experience with twinning partners to the East. 

In 2008 Lithuania won two twinning projects with Azerbaijan. We are currently implementing a twinning project aimed at building of support structures for your nation’s Parliament. The purpose of this project is to improve tools and work methods in the Parliament and in the law-drafting procedures between the Parliament and the executive bodies, in order to enhance and speed up the EU legal approximation in the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The second twinning project is aimed at providing support for the Anticorruption Department with the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan. We are pleased that Azerbaijan appreciates Lithuania as a model of rapid country development and modernization, and I am certain that our twinning cooperation will be extended into the future.

Lithuania is particularly pleased that the European Union has recently adopted the Eastern Partnership Initiative, which will provide an important instrument to draw our Eastern neighbours, including Azerbaijan, closer to Europe by creating a comprehensive framework for bilateral and multilateral cooperation. This Partnership foresees a substantial upgrade of the level of political engagement for the six Eastern partners, including far-reaching integration into the EU economy, easier travel to the EU, enhanced energy security and more active multilateral cooperation.  

The shared values of democracy, the rule of law, and respect for human rights will be at the core of the Initiative, as well as the principles of market economy, good governance and sustainable development.  The Initiative, to be officially launched in May, will, hopefully, also help the countries concerned to better respond to the hard-hitting global financial crisis and economic downturn  as well as to build trust and develop closer ties among the Eastern partners themselves.

Importantly, the Initiative is expected to respond to the specific needs and expectations of our Eastern neighbours, and will be developed individually with each one of them. Four thematic platforms are to be established in line with the main areas of cooperation (Democracy, good governance and stability; Economic integration and convergence with EU policies; Energy security; and Contacts between people).

In order to give momentum and concrete substance to the Partnership, Flagship Initiatives are to be launched in such areas as integrated border management programme; promotion of regional electricity markets; energy efficiency and renewable energy sources; development of the Southern energy corridor; and co-operation on prevention, preparedness for and response to natural and man-made disasters.

An important element of the Initiative is visa facilitation, which will promote mobility of citizens of partner countries.  Lithuania supports enhancing people-to-people contacts as well as youth exchanges. I hope the Partnership Initiative will open new avenues for closer cooperation in this respect- and that some of you, or many of you present here today will benefit from what this Initiative has to offer.

To translate the Partnership Initiative into practical bilateral cooperation, Lithuania and Azerbaijan yesterday signed a bilateral memorandum of partnership and cooperation on issues of the European integration of Azerbaijan. Specific actions envisioned in the memorandum will offer us concrete instruments for moving from talking the talk to walking it- and thus making the best use of the Partnership Initiative.

Without doubt, energy security is an area of key importance- and an area where your country, Lithuania and the EU as a whole could and should engage even more actively. The Eastern Partnership aims at strengthening the energy security cooperation of all the participants with regard to improving long-term energy supply and transit, including through better regulation and energy efficiency.

As you may be aware, Lithuania is particularly sensitive to energy matters, since in terms of infrastructure integration the Baltic States continue to be a valley of exclusion within the European Union.

The recent Ukraine-Russia gas conflict was a stark reminder that energy has become a tool of power politics and that we need to act decisively to diversify European energy supplies, by focusing on a systematic policy response and tackling the bottlenecks of energy security.

We need concerted European action to create a well-functioning and integrated internal energy market by developing internal interconnections; strengthening the external energy policy dimension by implementing in practice the principle of solidarity; ensuring the transparency of external supplies and developing alternative supply sources.

Azerbaijan can play a major role in ensuring the supply diversification for Europe and for my country in particular. The full potential of Azerbaijan in this field is yet to be tapped. For this we need to develop the energy transport infrastructure that links the Caspian Region to Europe. 

Lithuania has consistently promoted the strengthening of the EU external energy policy towards the countries of the Caspian and Black Sea regions. We support a faster formation of the Southern Gas Corridor and an acceleration of the Nabucco project. We are pleased that the Nabucco project has been included among the four priority energy infrastructure projects of the European Union, with funds allocated for its implementation. 

I would like to note another promising area of cooperation between our regions and countries, the transport sector.  For Azerbaijan, a country that lies at the crossroads between Europe and Asia, the existence of transport corridors between two continents has  high importance. An effectively functioning Europe-Caucasus-Asia corridor with favorable transit conditions will create new opportunities for the development of the whole region, becoming a major main element in global supply chain.

The foundation of this global corridor through the South Caucasus is a well known project “Viking”. Both our countries have repeatedly expressed support to its implementation, most recently at the GUAM Summit in 2008 July. The success of TRACECA and the project “Viking” largely depends on our joint efforts in such areas as simplification of cross border procedures, harmonised transport and tariff policies, and an effectively functioning maritime transport market in the Black Sea.

It is time now to move from declarations of support to making concrete decisions and demonstrating our readiness to implement these viable projects, which could bring considerable benefits to our people and our economies. On this occasion, I would like to express Lithuania’s appreciation to Azerbaijan for its support of our desire to become an observer with the TRACECA international commission. 

Ladies and gentlemen,

As I mentioned at the outset, our countries share a complex geography. Our twentieth century history had been marked by decades of captivity. Both Azerbaijan and Lithuania had been forcefully erased from the map of the world. And yet, we have managed to reemerge as nations and states- not as passive observers but as countries active regionally and internationally, able and willing to share the burden of making the wider world a more secure and more prosperous place.  

I believe in the wisdom of the Azeri people and their resolve to uphold the values enshrined in the founding document of your country. I also believe in the ability of the Azeri people to resolve the outstanding issues, no matter how seemingly intransigent, through peaceful means, in line with international norms and the interests of all parties involved. Lithuania supports the continued involvement of the OSCE and the efforts of Minsk group in dealing with the issue of Nagorno Karabach. As the future chair of the OSCE, Lithuania is ready to employ all instruments at its disposal in search of a just solution. We also see room for closer EU involvement in the process.

A prosperous and democratic Azerbaijan, building strong and sustainable institutions, pursuing economic reforms, maintaining friendly ties with its neighbours, active internationally and strengthening its cooperation with the EU and NATO, is in the interests of both, the EU and NATO, and is a direct guarantee of stability in this region, so vital for international stability and security.

Thank you.