News

On 2 April, the meeting of the Lithuania-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission on Bilateral Cooperation was held in Baku. Participants of the meeting named possible areas to be explored for furthering bilateral economic cooperation, including energy, information technology and tourism.

The commission’s second meeting was co-chaired by Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis and Azerbaijan’s Minister of Taxes Fazil Mammadov.

Opportunities to furthering cooperation with Azerbaijan in these areas are important to Lithuania, as the country is striving to reduce its energy dependence on the dominant supplier of energy resources. Participants of the meeting were acquainted with the project of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Klaipėda Seaport, the joint project to build a gas interconnection Lithuania-Poland and other energy projects.

The meeting discussed possibilities for tourism promotion. Azerbaijani representatives were acquainted with tourism and wellness services in Lithuania. This is one of the areas where investments of Azerbaijan in Lithuania are expected, but until now the investments have not been significant. According to the amount of foreign direct investments, Azerbaijan takes the 64th place.

Lithuanian IT companies have already successfully focused on solutions for Azerbaijan’s financial sector, mobile network, research, and other sectors. Lithuania also presented to Azerbaijani partners IT solutions for seaports and transport corridors. The regional Centre of Excellence for Nuclear Security, which is going to be established in Lithuania, will create conditions for the Lithuania-Azerbaijan cooperation in the field of nuclear safety.

The Minister Ažubalis invited Azerbaijan to actively engage in the project of the container train Viking. This train, connecting the Baltic and Black sea regions, presents an attractive opportunity to transport Azerbaijani goods to Europe rapidly, reliably and inexpensively.

Participants of the meeting identified cooperation in the field of science as particularly successful. The signing of the cooperation agreement between the Lithuanian Embassy in Baku and the Heydar Aliyev Foundation has opened up new possibilities for Lithuanian and Azerbaijani students to study at universities of these countries. In this academic year, even 55 students from Azerbaijan are studying at Lithuanian universities.

The meeting of the commission was attended by representatives from the ministries of economy, health, agriculture, culture, transport, education and science, from the State Tax Inspectorate, JSC Lithuanian Railways, SC Klaipedos Nafta and the Association “Infobalt”.

This is the second meeting of the Lithuania-Azerbaijan Intergovernmental Commission on Bilateral Cooperation. The first meeting took place on 26 May 2010 in Vilnius.

In 2011, Lithuanian and Azerbaijani trade turnover was 98.13 million Litas (28.42 million EUR). The balance of trade was positive and amounted to 65.06 million Litas (18.84 million EUR).