Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks at the third meeting of the Russia-Azerbaijan Expert Council, Baku, February 28, 2023
28 February 2023 17:05
368-28-02-2023
Mr Bayramov,
Co-chairmen,
My dear friends,
Communication with experts is about more for us than just setting aside the necessary time. This is an opportunity to listen to assessments and to see how convincing you are in advancing different initiatives or defending various positions. Sometimes it can really get you thinking. I know many of our experts from their regular appearance in public. I can assure you that for us this is no less interesting than our visits and remarks are for you.
Indeed, this is a regular visit here for me. Yesterday, we had substantive talks with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. As Mr Bayramov said, today we spent several hours with him - more than we had planned. Our conversation was informal, on the substance and on all issues that we discussed. We conducted a practical search for concrete and maximally effective solutions, primarily, in the context of the Declaration on Allied Interaction that will be a year old in a couple of days. It has raised our relations to a new level. I am glad that during this visit I have an opportunity to communicate with the political science community, in part, at the meeting of the Russia-Azerbaijan Expert Council. As we know, the backbone of the council consists of representatives of our respective think tanks - the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) and the Baku Centre for the Analysis of International Relations.
I am pleased to see many specialists from other large research organisations and media here. We enthusiastically support the synergy of intellectual efforts.
I have already mentioned that the meeting is timed to the first anniversary of the signing of the Declaration on Allied Interaction by our presidents. Mr Bayramov has already assessed its main points. I would also like to note the unchanging values behind our cooperation, which are fixed in this declaration - integrity, equality, neighbourliness, mutual respect and consideration of each other's interests. Integrity is particularly important. Far from all our colleagues and partners are displaying this quality in our relations. Importantly, our views do not fully coincide on everything in our relations with Azerbaijan. But when there are "nuances" to address, we never try to paper over them with platitudes. We explain honestly to each other how and why we will act in a particular situation. This is, first, the right thing to do and, second, more effective for promoting national foreign policy.
Obviously, the fact that this document began to be implemented in the most turbulent geopolitical period we can remember confirms that it is not opportunistic but rooted in the vital interests of our countries and peoples.
Speaking before this audience, I consider it my duty and an honour to pay tribute to Geidar Aliyev, an outstanding political leader of our time (because the second half of the 20th century is also a part of our era). It is difficult to overstate his contribution to laying the foundations for our comprehensive strategic partnership that has now developed into allied relations. Being a wise, prescient and far-sighted politician, he understood perfectly well the importance of relations with Russia and was the initiator, the driver of many important joint undertakings. It is enough to mention his personal contribution to the 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security that became the first step towards the current Declaration on Allied Interaction between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan.
We noted that Geidar Aliyev played a truly unifying role for our states and peoples in their new status after the disappearance of the Soviet Union. We agreed to hold many events for his centenary, including an exhibition in Moscow and a meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission. A large programme of events is planned in the capitals and at the regional level.
Building on the vast intellectual and practical legacy of Geidar Aliyev, our presidents have reached an unprecedented level of mutual trust. Together, they are setting the pace for the smooth functioning of our ministries, agencies, parliamentary contacts, as well as regional and youth cooperation. Two youth forums took place last year in Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation. We have active roadmaps on developing cooperation in different sectors.
Obviously, we will not stop at our achievements to date. This is the express purpose of the current visit. Our relations have a truly rich, inexhaustible potential. Russia is among Baku's three top trading partners, ranking first in non-hydrocarbon imports. Last year, our trade noticeably grew and reached a record $4 billion according to all tentative estimates (we are still awaiting the final numbers).
We are planning to implement large-scale joint projects that have both regional and global dimensions. First, this means the further extension of the North-South international transport corridor, including, as you know well, the Resht-Astara section.
By the end of this decade, Azerbaijan may become a transit territory for annual shipments of up to 15 million tonnes of cargoes. We must still resolve a number of logistic, technical, financial and legal issues. We have the political will and motivation for this, as our presidents reaffirmed once again. Other countries are also interested in this project. They will either be involved in it or take part in it as investors. This is a guarantee of its success.
We are expanding energy cooperation. Gazprom, Rosneft and Lukoil are taking part in joint oil-and-gas projects. They have ideas on boosting their potential in the long term. We will help them carry out these plans.
We are coordinating the efforts of Russia and Azerbaijan on the Caspian agenda. We are working together to boost economic activity in the Caspian Sea in line with what was decided at the Sixth Caspian Forum held in Ashgabat in June 2022. The foreign ministries of Russia and Azerbaijan are paying special attention to Caspian issues in their two-year plan of consultations. We agreed to work hard in this area.
Russia has a stake in peaceful, stable and prosperous South Caucasus. In this regard, we are working hard trying to reconcile the Azerbaijanis and the Armenians who are brotherly peoples to us. Jeyhun Bayramov mentioned earlier that in the autumn of 2020, as part of President Putin's personal contacts with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, an agreement was reached to put an end to the armed confrontation in Nagorno-Karabakh. The document that was agreed upon back then and subsequent tripartite statements at the top level provide a solid foundation for normalising relations between Baku and Yerevan.
Much has been done. The Russian peacekeeping contingent is working to ensure security within its area of responsibility. The roads are being unblocked and borders are being delimited. Talks are underway to develop a peace treaty between Azerbaijan and Armenia. We are prepared, as agreed by our leaders, to provide assistance in any of these areas. We have nothing against other parties helping resolve these issues, above all agreeing on a peace treaty with the understanding that this will be done in a straightforward manner based on the interest in establishing lasting peace and putting in place conditions helping all countries move forward.
Occasionally, one can't help getting an impression that some extra-regional players offering their services are not guided by these goals and see the situation as an opportunity to play their routine geopolitical games not for the benefit of all, but for their own gain.
We are convinced that our partners, including in Azerbaijan, will make their own decisions and make their choices based on their vision of the situation. They are well aware of the risks that occasionally emerge as a result of the attempts to put a political or an ideological slant on the efforts to normalise the situation in the region. I have no doubt that the results of our work will be positive. Russia strongly advocates for parliamentarians, experts and clerics to take part in the efforts in addition to the governments and military from the two countries. We appreciate the fact that Azerbaijan shares this position as an important tool for creating the right atmosphere.
It is equally important to exclude destructive interference by external players who do not want to see a stable regional security system in the future and are trying to influence these processes.
In this regard, the consultative 3+3 regional platform format which was spearheaded by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is very much sought after and is quite promising. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin supported it. The format includes three South Caucasus countries (Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia) and three of their neighbours (Russia, Turkey and Iran). So far, one meeting of this mechanism has been held. The Georgian neighbours have refrained from participating. We agreed that we will keep the door open to Tbilisi. This offer remains on the table in the context of ongoing preparations for the second meeting.
We work together with Azerbaijan in other regional formats as well. Quite a long time ago, a top-level trilateral format Russia-Azerbaijan-Iran was created and functioned quite successfully (at least until the Covid-19 outbreak). We believe its prospects are good. We are now interested in our Iranian colleagues taking the necessary steps in order to deal with the consequences of the bloody attack on the diplomatic mission of Azerbaijan. We will try to help resolve this matter.
Speaking of different formats, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Eurasian integration where we see good prospects for cooperation. I'm aware that this issue has already been or will be discussed at your conference. Russian Ambassador to Baku Mikhail Bocharnikov told me the other day that a round table discussion about university cooperation was held here. Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov took part in the previous meeting of the heads of government of the EAEU countries in Bishkek in 2022. The intergovernmental council at the level of prime ministers will meet in Sochi in summer. We sent an invitation to the prime minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan. I believe we will all benefit from seeing what kind of opportunities the Eurasian economic processes can offer to Azerbaijan. We will be very interested in expanding such contacts.
We covered in detail the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. At last year's summit, its participants decided to transform this meeting into a full-fledged international organisation. Azerbaijan and Russia share close philosophical approaches in this regard. We believe this process holds much promise since it has great potential to promote Eurasianism ideas and practices, meaning our entire continent. Unlike the OSCE which remains Western-centric and has so far failed to become a full-fledged organisation due to a strong opposition on behalf of the Western countries that prefer to keep it in a hazy state, which makes it more amenable to manipulation.
I think that the formalising of the work that started within the framework of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia in the context of making it an organisation opens up broad opportunities for our foreign policy and geo-economic creative efforts and policies.
I wish you every success. I hope that in addition to the collection of articles (which I appreciate much), Mr Bayramov and I will get a chance to be updated about the conclusions that you will come up with. We will definitely share with you our impressions and our plans regarding their use.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
