French holiday in Baku with demarche tinge

Baku/15.07.23/Turan: The French Embassy in Azerbaijan held a reception on 14 July on the occasion of the country's National Holiday - Bastille Day.

According to the diplomatic tradition, at such receptions, the Ambassador of a foreign state makes a welcoming speech and a high-ranking representative of the Azerbaijani government makes a congratulatory speech.

However, this time there were no speakers from the Azerbaijani side.

Obviously, this was due to the difficult period in bilateral relations, which is due to the outspoken pro-Armenian position of the French political elite in the still unresolved conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The recent statement by French President Emmanuel Macron at a meeting with the Armenian community in Marseille, where he stated "France's determination on the Artsakh issue, caused particular irritation in Baku.

"I have put and will continue to put more pressures on [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev than [Armenian Prime Minister Nikol] Pashinyan himself. The question for Pashinyan is. I am the only one who has a clear position and message on the Artsakh issue. Do not doubt my determination regarding Artsakh and Armenia as a whole. I will continue my efforts even if I am almost the only one in the international family with this agenda," the French President said, thus causing a diplomatic row.

Azerbaijan has expressed its protest through diplomatic channels, while the French side has not provided explanations at the public level.

So the absence of representatives of the Azerbaijani government at the reception of the French Embassy can be regarded as Baku's demarche.

At the same time, several deputies of the Milli Majlis were seen at the event, as well as Azerbaijani Ambassador to France Leyla Abdullayeva.

French Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Buillon in her speech welcomed and thanked Azerbaijani partners who "for many years have been maintaining and developing strong relations between the two countries in economic, academic and scientific, cultural and educational spheres".

Recalling the visit of the French Foreign Minister to Azerbaijan in April this year, the Ambassador noted that "this visit was an opportunity to reaffirm the common aspiration for the development of bilateral relations and France's commitment to achieving a just and lasting peace in the region".

"At a time when the next talks will be held in Brussels (it's about the talks scheduled for 15 July between the leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the head of the EU Council), I once again express our support for the efforts of the EU Council and hope that the discussions will be productive," Bouillon said.

Later, a presentation video about the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in Paris in 2024 was presented at the event.

It has to be kept in mind that amid tensions in political relations, economic co-operation continues to grow strongly.

This week, French company "TotalEnergies", in co-operation with the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR), announced the start of gas production within the first phase of development of the large Absheron gas condensate field.

Aside from this, in the first quarter of 2023, the trade turnover between the two countries totalled more than 290 million dollars and by this index France is among the leading trade partners of Azerbaijan. At the same time, French imports amounted to more than 220 million dollars, and Azerbaijani expert - 70 million dollars. -16d-