Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev signed a Joint Statement strengthening relations between the two nations, as President Putin completed a critical two-day state visit to the capital Baku over Aug. 18-20. The two nations’ leaders discussed the following bilateral economic projects:
• A Memorandum of Understanding between the Export and Investment Promotion Agency (AZPROMO) of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Russian Direct Investment Fund joint-stock company, which will facilitate Russia’s investment into projects in Azerbaijan and assist the export of goods between the two countries to grow.
• Russia and Azerbaijan are potentially considering the implementation of a new oil or gas project on the Caspian Sea shelf, according to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak, reported First Channel News today. He remarked that Moscow and Baku also intend to continue cooperation in the electricity sector.
• The two Presidents worked on engineering experts’ plans to advance the 7,200 km multi-modal International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), which connects northern Europe, from Finland, the Baltic nations, and Belarus, through to Russia’s St. Petersburg and Moscow, to Azerbaijan, Iran, the Persian Gulf, and Gulf of Oman, on to the Mumbai area of India. Aliyev enthusiastically added, “I must say that both the railway and road segments of the ‘North-South’ corridor have been fully realized and are functioning successfully. At present, we are working on modernizing the railway section of this corridor to increase its throughput capacity. We are talking about the possibility of transporting 15 million tons or more of cargo per year,” reports AzerNews on Aug. 20. Iran and India are also heavily committed to the corridor, and seek to increase cargo to 30 million tons per year.
