- Question: What is your assessment of the Polish-Azerbaijani relations? Which areas of cooperation do you consider to have priority?

- Answer: Poland considers Azerbaijan to be a very important partner with which our relations in many areas have taken on the form of a strategic partnership. I very much look forward to the implementation of our joint projects, primarily in the energy sector, but also in area of economy and culture. Today, many Polish companies such as LOTOS, PKN Orlen, Polska Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych (State Securities Printing House) and others are interested in doing projects in Baku. Our cooperation relies mainly on our mutual understanding of regional and global issues. We support Azerbaijan in its efforts to preserve its territorial integrity, in the building of confidence measures and in a peaceful settlement of disputes.

European integration, Euro-Atlantic and international cooperation are some of the other equally important areas of our cooperation. We support Azerbaijan in its efforts to tighten relations with the EU, NATO and WTO. We hope the Azerbaijani authorities will wish to benefit from our experiences as far as integration, alignment and technical assistance are concerned. We would like to see Azerbaijan become an important state in the great European family.

- Q: What are the main topics of the upcoming visit?

- A: President Ilham Aliyev is an excellent interlocutor; conversing with him is both a real pleasure and an intellectual challenge for me. Our talks will focus on summing up the developments that have taken place since President Alijev's last visit to Poland in February 2008. Many things have happened since then: the war in Georgia, the gas crisis, the economic crisis. There are also many subjects to be discussed in our bilateral cooperation, relating to the economy and culture, among others, which need to be pursued further.

- Q: In your opinion, what are the similarities in our two countries' positions when it comes to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict?

- A: Poland has invariably been advocating a peaceful solution to the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. I have spoken out many times in favor of the principle of territorial integrity of states, both in the case of Azerbaijan and Georgia. Indeed, we believe that this conflict can only be resolved on this basis. I hope that the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group, which has been actively engaged for many years in bringing about a peaceful resolution of the conflict will ultimately produce tangible and positive effects.

- Q: Azerbaijan together with 5 other post-Soviet states has been participating in the Eastern Partnership program. Can Poland's experience be useful to Azerbaijan in its cooperation with the EU?

- A: As I have said earlier, Poland can offer Azerbaijan its vast experience when it comes to integration processes with the EU. We have already started to carry out a number of training programs and traineeships for the Azerbaijani state and local government administration officials. Coming closer to European structures requires enormous effort and Poland would like to facilitate this process.

Eastern Partnership creates possibilities for developing this type of cooperation, not only in relation to the EU, but also to other countries that participate in this program. I think that this program is both an opportunity and a challenge and that it will be largely up to the states that are in the Eastern Partnership how much they will benefit from the possibilities offered to them.

- Q: What is your assessment of the role that Azerbaijan plays in the diversification of the supply of energy resources to Europe?

- A: Azerbaijan plays a key role in the Euro-Asian Transportation Corridor for energy resources from the Caspian Sea region to Europe. We are both involved in this project and the Odessa-Brody-Płock-Gdańsk pipeline is a part of it. We can already mention some concrete steps that have been taken: the formation of the company Sarmatia, the preparation and adoption of a feasibility study for the project. We now should decide about the construction of the missing part of the pipeline from Brody to Płock.

At any rate, Azerbaijan has proven that it is a reliable partner in this field. The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline and the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum gas pipeline have been successfully operating for several years now. I hope that also in this case we will be able to transport Azeri oil to Polish and European refineries soon.

/Trend News/