Why Cooperation with the EU Has Become a Priority for Azerbaijan?

• 10.23.2017, 15:47
•  Europe,  Region,  World

The delegation of the European Commission will visit Baku in late October to discuss the agreement on strategic partnership, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said. According to him, at present the second of the three sections of the document is being worked out. "Cooperation with the EU is one of the priorities of Azerbaijan's foreign policy," the minister added.

Negotiations on the new agreement started on February 7, 2017. The new document will replace the agreement on partnership and cooperation, adopted in 1996, should comply with the principles approved in 2015 in the document of the Institute of the European Neighborhood Policy. This agreement will offer an updated basis for political dialogue and mutually beneficial cooperation between the EU and Azerbaijan.

Initially, it was expected that the parties would complete the negotiations before November, and at the Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels it will be possible to sign an agreement, but it is clear that this year this will not happen. As we can assume from the statements of the Azerbaijani officials, there are serious disagreements over the Karabakh issue; in particular, Azerbaijan wants to include in the agreement a point on the recognition of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, but Brussels categorically refuses this.

It should be noted that this agreement is very important for both the European Union and Azerbaijan. The European Union is very interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan in diversifying its sources of energy carriers. Perhaps this is because Brussels does not even mention the gross violations of human rights in Azerbaijan during the current negotiations. Europe has recently expressed its concerns over this issue through the Council of Europe, which even announced the possibility of excluding Azerbaijan from the structure.

As for Azerbaijan, the latter is also interested in the prospect of bringing its energy carriers to the European market, at the same time has the task of preserving its reputation. The recent anti-Azerbaijani statements, investigations and adoption of resolutions in PACE prove that Aliyev's policy in the European direction to fail. On the other hand, the signing of an agreement between Armenia and the EU in Brussels in November will also be a blow for the reputation of Azerbaijan, as Azerbaijan and Belarus will become outsiders of the Eastern Partnership. The Baku authorities now need to show their own society, why not, the international community as well, that this is not the case. Perhaps the most striking proof of this can be the fact that the negotiations on strategic cooperation with the EU are proceeding successfully.

Under these circumstances, both sides are ready to make some concessions on the issue of disagreements and not to end the negotiations.