TODAY.AZ / Politics

Czech Deputy PM: Southern Caucasus is priority in Czech Republic's foreign policy

07 May 2010 [18:06] - TODAY.AZ
For us, Azerbaijan is a very important partner in the Southern Caucasus, a priority region in the Czech Republic's foreign policy, Deputy Prime-Minister, Czechia's Foreign Minister, Jan Kohout, said on the eve of the visit to Azerbaijan May 13-14.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister will pay his first visit to Azerbaijan May 13-14.

My up-coming visit to Baku is a next step in the process of strengthening and developing relations between the two countries and a confirmation of the interest of the Czech Republic in this process and its continuation, he said.

Meetings of the representatives of our countries have been quite intensive in the last years, Kohout said.

Let me mention just two most important ones: the visit of Czech Prime Minister to Baku in February 2009 (it was the first visit of the acting Chairman of the European Council in Azerbaijan) and the visit of President Aliyev to Prague on the occasion of two important events organized during the Czech EU Presidency - the Eastern Partnership Summit and the Southern Corridor Summit in May 2009, he said.

The aim of my visit is to discuss further steps and common strategy for the progress in our bilateral agenda with the highest representatives of Azerbaijan - President Ilham Aliyev, Prime Minister Artur Rasizade and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. I am also very glad to have the honor to open officially the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Baku.

During the visit Deputy Prime Minister will also attend the opening of the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Baku.

"I am really happy that we managed to open the Czech Embassy in Azerbaijan. It is not easy to open a new embassy during an economic crisis, especially considering the fact that current budgetary constraints have forced us to close several diplomatic missions in the world," Kohout said.

I am sure that this step will accelerate further co-operation between the Czech Republic and Azerbaijan in various areas, beside politics and economy also in spheres such as education, tourism and cultural co-operation, he said.

"In this regard I appreciate the signing of the agreement between our governments on economic, scientific and technical and cultural co-operation, which provides a basis for concrete projects," he said.

Regarding the education I welcome the co-operation between the Slavic University in Baku and the Masaryk University in Brno that opened the Azerbaijan and Caspian Studies Centre.

/Trend/

URL: http://www.today.az/news/politics/67489.html

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