ECONOMIC COOPERATION
BETWEEN ADRIATIC AND CASPIAN SEAS
For a long time world economy were dominated by super states and nowdays the time has come to open the doors for multi-directional economic cooperation
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hile this was going on, a new power was emerging half way between Europe and Asia, times have changed and now it is time for our country to discover another important partner after Russia, Turkey, China, the United States and the EU. Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev visited Croatia to meet with his Croatian counterpart, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović to talk about the economic cooperation, energy and bilateral relations. What was the cooperation between the two countries like in the past? Well, it was both good and bad but with a huge potential for growth. Namely, the economic cooperation between Croatia and Azerbaijan has been developing without any open issues, but the two sides agree that the current results do not match the potential and they expect the cooperation to grow.
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Focus
AZERBAIJAN 2018
NEW OPPORTUNITIES
Looking at the relevant figures, we can see that the external trade between the two countries in 2017 amounted to only €226.1 million which is quite modest. But a 3.4% increase has been recorded relative to the previous year. The Croa-
TIMES HAVE CHANGED AND NOW IT IS TIME FOR CROATIA TO DISCOVER ANOTHER IMPORTANT PARTNER AFTER RUSSIA, TURKEY, CHINA, THE UNITED STATES AND THE ENTIRE EU
tian exports to Azerbaijan amounted to only €698,000 and fell by 53%, while the imports amounted to €225.4 million, which is a 3.9% increase. Croatia recorded a deficit of €224.6 million in the external trade with Azerbaijan. The export is quite low. To remind, Azerbaijan has a huge market and the country is one of the few that, in the period between 2008 and 2010, did not record a drop in the gross domestic product, but only a slightly lower growth. Unfortunately, Croatia also had no embassy in Azerbaijan only until recently. In order for the cooperation between the two countries to become more direct and more intense, Government of Croatia decided to open the Croatian embassy in Baku in May this year. Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Zagreb seven years before, in 2011. After the meeting, the two presidents
