Serbian Prime Minister in Baku

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received the Prime Minister of Serbia Alexander Vucic.

The Prime Minister arrived in Baku on 13 April. The three-day visit will give new impetus to the Azerbaijani-Serbian relations, primarily economic ones.

The sides noted the high level of bilateral relations and called for the strengthening and expansion of cooperation in various areas of energy, infrastructure, investment, transit, cultural, humanitarian and other fields.

Vucic and Aliyev exchanged views on the protection of the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and Serbia, who are faced with the problem of territorial claims.

Both countries actively cooperate on this issue and other political aspects of the United Nations and other international institutions, which cannot be said about their economic relations. Despite intense official contacts, trade between the two countries is at a low level within USD 4 million at the end of last year.

Most of all Serbia is interested in investments and Alexander Vucic brought offers for the Baku Business Forum on infrastructure and agricultural projects for Azerbaijani companies.

Azerbaijan is already involved in building one of the largest infrastructure projects in Serbia, i.e. the motorway section Corridor 11 Lig - Prelin. Official Baku has allocated Serbia a loan of 308 million Euros for this project for 25 years at 4% per annum.

Serbia is interested in participating in energy projects in the Balkans, which are connected with Azerbaijan, such as TAP and TANAP. Similarly, Belgrade is negotiating with Moscow and Ankara.

However, the initiative of Serbia can be taken cool in Azerbaijan. In March, the head of the government-funded Center for Political Innovation and Technology Mubariz Ahmedoglu expressed dissatisfaction with the simulation character of support from Serbia to Azerbaijan. He noted that Serbia during the presidency in the OSCE did not include the issue of support for territorial integrity in the list of priorities.

"Serbia promises to support the old standard formats. But the previous formats do not allow resolving the Karabakh conflict peacefully and only create conditions for simulation. Serbia attracts investments from Azerbaijan and hopes for their increase. Despite this, it could not change anything after the start of its presidency," he said. -0-