First meeting of Azerbaijan-EU High-Level Transport Dialogue held
The first meeting of the High-Level Transport Dialogue between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the European Union (EU) was held as part of the visit of the delegation led by Director-General for Mobility and Transport (MOVE) of the European Commission Henrik Hololei to Azerbaijan.
The meeting was attended by heads of government agencies, ambassadors, representatives of the European Union and the banking sector.
During his speech at the meeting Minister of Transport, Communications and High Technologies of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ramin Guluzade noted that due to the special care of President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, integration into the international transport system, infrastructure development, sustainable financing, improvement of the quality of services, simplifying the use of transport and increasing social welfare are ensured.
“Azerbaijan is the initiator and active participant of many Eurasian projects on the development of transport links passing through the Caucasus region. The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, commissioned on October 30, 2017, is of strategic importance for the region and provides the shortest connection of railway networks in Europe and Asia. Besides that, the Baku International Sea Trade Port is the most important transit point in the region and will play a major role in the implementation of freight and passenger traffic through the international transport corridors East-West and North-South,” – Ramin Guluzade said.
The Minister also stressed that large-scale projects are being implemented in the country to develop road infrastructure and create a modern road network.
In addition, Ramin Guluzade noted that new tankers and ferries were purchased and put into operation for the widespread use of multimodal transport in the Caspian region to accelerate and increase the volume of maritime transport.
“Along with sea and land transport, one of the priority areas is the development of the civil aviation sector. To this end, considerable work has been done in recent years. Aircraft fleet “Azerbaijan Hava Yollari” (AZAL) is fully updated with new and modern aircraft. Today AZAL aircrafts perform regular flights to Europe, the CIS, America and Asia. Appropriate measures are being taken to further increase the number of flights and fully utilize the transit potential of our country in this area,” – the Minister said.
According to Ramin Guluzade, the expansion of international cooperation, including relations between the European Union and the Republic of Azerbaijan, is of particular importance in terms of increasing the country’s transit potential.
Saying a particular attention is paid to road safety in Azerbaijan, the Minister recalled the adoption of the “State Program for Road Safety in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2019-2023” by the presidential order.
“I think that in order to use the experience of the European Union in fulfilling the tasks stipulated by this program, more intensive cooperation will be carried out in this direction. I hope that the expansion of our cooperation will create conditions for easy, fast and safe transportation of goods and passengers between the European Union and the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as economic cooperation and trade development,” – the Minister concluded.
Director-General for Mobility and Transport (MOVE) of the European Commission Henrik Hololei spoke about the benefits of a high-level transport dialogue. He noted that the issue of holding such dialogues with partners is thoroughly analyzed in advance: “This is the seventh dialogue held at the level of the European Union. We hold such high-level events with very interested parties. Today, discussions will be held on many segments of the transport sector that will determine new horizons and areas of cooperation.”
Henrik Hololei also stressed that the high-level dialogue will discuss aspects of further cooperation.
The event discussed issues of aviation, maritime and transport security, Transport Investment Plan, Euro-Asian connectivity strategy, digital tachographs. In addition, there was an exchange of views on the draft agreement “On Common Aviation Area” and a number of issues of cooperation in the field of transport between the EU and Azerbaijan, causing mutual interest.
