“Over the past 30 years, Azerbaijan has become an important and reliable energy partner of the European Union. We are proud to be Azerbaijan’s largest trading partner.”
“Elchi” reports that this was stated by the Head of the European Union (EU) Delegation to Azerbaijan, Mariana Kujundzic, during her speech at a roundtable in Baku titled “Europe-Azerbaijan relations: evaluation of historical experience and future directions of cooperation.”
According to her, Azerbaijan-EU relations are dynamic: “This is a very diplomatic expression, but the dynamism in our relations is constantly increasing, and we are deepening our ties. I arrived in Azerbaijan on September 2 last year. Since then, I have met with three EU Commissioners. This is a position equivalent to the ministerial level. Also, the President of the European Council, Antonio Costa, as well as the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, have visited Azerbaijan,” the ambassador noted.
She emphasized that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Azerbaijan in July, which shows that bilateral relations are taking on a more dynamic character: “This is also an unprecedented number of visits. Usually, ambassadors can meet with a president once or twice during their mandate. However, within the first 10 months, we have hosted all of them in Azerbaijan. This is very important. I expect them to come to Azerbaijan again in 2028 within the framework of the European Political Community summit.”
The Head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan noted that during Ursula von der Leyen’s visit, issues of expanding bilateral cooperation, regional peace, and connectivity were discussed with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
She stated that von der Leyen called Azerbaijan a strategic partner of the EU and noted the country’s important role as a reliable energy partner.
According to Mariana Kujundzic, a 20 million euro package was announced during that visit to support regional peace initiatives. These funds will be directed toward healthcare, demining, development of local communities, water management, as well as support for small and medium-sized enterprises.