The first visit of an Azerbaijani president to Albania

Albanian Daily News has published an article on the forthcoming visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Tirana. Caliber.Az reprints the article. 

At the invitation of President Begaj, the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will visit Albania next month. His first visit comes after several visits of the highest Albanian authorities to Azerbaijan over the years. At the beginning of this year, President Meta and Prime Minister Rama visited Baku. In the new geopolitical conditions, President Aliyev's visit to Tirana takes on a special importance in the perspective of bilateral and multilateral relations, both for the Balkans and for Europe, but not only.

Towards long-term strategic partnerships.

Azerbaijan, one of the 6 independent Turkmen states of the Caucasus region of Eurasia, independent from Russia in 1991, is experiencing one of its best eras in the economic, diplomatic and trade fields. The Ukraine-Russia conflict gave Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev a golden opportunity to strengthen his country's position as an important transit point for global trade, a vital source of energy for Europe, and to gain more political support. international for the Nagorno-Karabakh file.

Geopolitics is increasingly turning into geoeconomics.

The European narrative in search of an alternative to trade routes coming from China and passing through Russia has contributed to the revival of interest in what is known as the "Middle Trade Corridor". This corridor connects China with Europe passing through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Azerbaijan is the backbone of this corridor, the connecting node between Eastern Europe and Western Asia. With this estimate, the European Commission is financing there 2.2 billion dollars to support 25,000 small companies that work in the field of trade, export and import, in addition to supporting the development of the port of Baku. The port in Baku is designed to transport containers and goods from East to West, making it a vital point for global trade.

Oil and natural gas are the backbone of Azerbaijan's economy and one of the country's main sources of income. The volume of oil production in June was about 632.4 thousand barrels per day. The sector finances about 60% of the government budget. Oil and natural gas make up about 90% of the country's export earnings.

Azerbaijan has become the main interlocutor for Europeans in the field of energy and trade. This is shown by the high intensity of the meetings between the two parties. Just a few months ago, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, and the Bulgarian President, Rumen Radev, inaugurated the gas pipeline connecting Greece and Bulgaria. Meanwhile, Azerbaijan's gas exports to Europe have increased by more than 30%, making it one of the old continent's alternative suppliers. In total, Baku will send 12 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe in 2022. During her visit to Baku in July, Von der Leyen and President Ilham Aliyev agreed to double the volume of gas exported to Europe in a few years. Azerbaijan can export to Europe 20 billion cubic meters of gas per year, after the completion of the "Southern Gas Corridor", which starts in Azerbaijan and ends in Europe, with pipelines 3500 km long and with a budget of more than 45 billion dollars. To accelerate the gas export infrastructure from Azerbaijan, the European Union has approved a financing of 2.1 billion USD.

In terms of security, in the conditions of the conflict in Ukraine, the importance of stability in the Caucasus becomes clearer. A further expansion of the conflict in the former Soviet areas would be in the interest of Putin's Russia. All the more so that Azerbaijan is geographically the connecting land node between Russia and Iran. Both of these countries, supporters of Armenia, have not stopped trying to destabilize the region. The EU is interested in the stability of the region, especially Azerbaijan, which has shown clear and strategic credentials in relations with the EU. It is worth noting that Azerbaijan is the only OPEC plus country that increased its oil export quota. President Aliyev's vision is quite clear and apparently, his opponents are also from the West.

Albania, the gateway of major Azerbaijani projects to Europe.

Bilateral relations between Albania and Azerbaijan are good, especially the economic ones. Azerbaijan is the most important investor in Albania in these 30 years. The "TAP" Azerbaijan-Italy project, where Albania is the end line, is the largest project and the most important investment in the energy field. The gas pipeline corridor "TAP" is expected to continue with the Ionian project "JAP", which starts from Albania in the direction of Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria and Italy. This would give the Albanian economy a significant breather and stability for the future, especially if we refer to today's energy crisis. Through two large gas companies SOCAR (Azerbaijani), SNAMIT (Italian) as well as Albanian Alb-gaz, the gasification network of Albania is expected to be laid.

Relations in the field of tourism between the two countries need a revitalization. Due to a stagnation "for unknown reasons" tourism projects are in a state of "stand by", Azerbaijan invested the biggest project, several billion, of Portonov in Montenegro. In the new geopolitical conditions, Azerbaijan can continue with such projects also on the Albanian coast.

Beyond economic interests, Albania assumes a strategic role for Azerbaijan as a temporary member of the Security Council due to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. Moscow considers the Caucasus as its sphere of influence and, in the last 30 years, it has managed to limit the influence of the US in this area. And while neighboring Iran is on the side of Armenia in this conflict, Azerbaijanis living in Iran demand the rights of the national minority, which Iran rejects. These are just some of the reasons that create favorable conditions for Azerbaijan to look towards solid strategic alliances, with not only regional partnerships.

During President Aliyev's visit to Tirana next month, it is expected that a number of issues of interest to both countries will be discussed with his Albanian counterpart, President Bajram Begaj. The geopolitical situation, strengthening of relations, increased cooperation and security issues are supposed to take the main space in the discussion between the two counterparts. Azerbaijan is a country with great economic and strategic potential. The geopolitical circumstances give an even greater weight to this visit. It is expected that the two Presidents will agree on many issues, which will increase the friendly relations between the two countries to a higher level. Albania considers Azerbaijan a friendly country and an important ally in the Caucasus region. The common interest is the further deepening of cooperation between the two countries. The opening of mutual embassies and a direct Baku-Tirana air connection would initially facilitate the movement of citizens of the two countries. Both countries have sufficient potential for increasing trade exchanges. The times our continent is going through are very difficult, but at the same time a source of important challenges, as well as opportunities for a prosperous future for both countries.