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BETWEEN ADRIATIC AND CASPIAN SEAS
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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While 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 coun tries like in the past? Well, it was both good and bad but with a huge potential for growth. Namely, the economic cooper ation 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.
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
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 coop eration 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
said that Croatia and Azerbaijan were friendly countries, and that they were also important strategic partners, espe cially after the joint Declaration on strategic partnership and friendly relations was signed in 2013 in Zagreb. This sounds quite promising, especially given the fact that the Croatian President went on an official visit to Azerbaijan in October 2016. On the occasion, the President said that her visit to Baku and the talks with President Aliyev and other officials, as well as the fact that 35 Croatian companies participated in the economic forum there together with hundreds of Azerbaijani companies, would contribute to the concretization of many forms of cooperation, from trade and investments to joint cooperation in the fields of energy, technology, food industry, shipbuilding, transport and tourism.
For years, Azerbaijan has been recording excellent economic growth and has been working on developing different economic branches, while trying to improve both investment and business climate. The Croa tian President did admit that Croatia should “increase its visibility”. Bearing in mind that the value of the Croatian exports to Azer baijan is under EUR 1 million, it is clear that Croatia can be “a window” for Azerbaijan in the EU, considering the country’s wealth of oil and natural gas reserves.
The industrial production of oil in Azer baijan started in the 19th century, when the country was the oil centre of the two big countries - the Russian Empire and the USSR. The demand for oil is huge and the market is hungry. So, if Croatia is not willing to take an advantage of this, somebody else will, and many countries are already ahead of us.
TAP
Decision to build the Trans-Adriatic Gas Pipeline (TAP), which is the best option for supplying gas to South East Europe, was an extremely important one. The official Brus sels did admit that the TAP, as one of the joint interest projects, was crucial for diver sification of supply routes and improving the security of gas deliveries. To remind, the agreement on the construction of the TAP, which is supposed to supply Caspian gas to South East Europe, was signed in Baku, in 2013.
In February 2018, the fourth ministe rial meeting of the Advisory Council of the South Gas Corridor was held in Baku. The South Gas Corridor is one of the priority projects for the EU since it transports 20 billion cubic meters of Azerbaijani gas from the Caspian Sea via Georgia and Turkey to Europe. Azerbaijan, Turkey, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Albania, Italy, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro are participating in
THE CURRENT ECONOMIC COOPERATION BETWEEN CROATIA AND AZERBAIJAN
IS FOCUSED ON THE
PHARMACEUTICAL
INDUSTRY AND ENERGY
the project. A Letter of Intent on the estab lishment of the Adriatic-Ionian Gas Pipeline Project (IAP) project was also signed. This gas pipeline will stretch through Albania and Montenegro and connect to the TAP and further to the Croatian gas system in the town of Split.
PHARMACEUTICALS AND
CENTRAL ASIA
A Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation between the two countries was established recently, with the aim of promoting the development of economic cooperation, which was assessed to be inadequate. Also, there is the need to bolster the trade parallel with the imple mentation of bilateral projects.
The current economic coopera tion between Croatia and Azerbaijan is focused on the pharmaceutical industry and energy, but a deeper cooperation between the Croatian and Azerbaijani pharmaceutical companies is needed, which, according to the Croatian presi dent, "would open the door to the Croatian pharmaceutical companies in the Central
Asian market, the entire Caspian basin and wider, including the countries with which Azerbaijan has free trade agreements”. We should not forget that Azerbaijan have good relations with neighbouring and Central Asian countries as well. "Croatia is one of the future European gas hubs with certain important future energy corridors begining exactly in Azer baijan, such as the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline. Croatia wants to become a gas supplier for Central Europe via the Ioni an-Adriatic gas pipeline along the Adriatic coast, the majority of which has already been built in Croatia," Kolinda Grabar-Ki tarović said. The LNG Terminal project in Krk could also be of interest to Azer baijan as an entry point for the Central and South East European market. "Azer baijan is engaged in the development of a corridor that will unite seven countries, which extends 3,500 kilometers, starting in Baku, and transports natural gas,” said Azerbaijani President, Ilham Aliyev. It is also important to mention that Azerbaijan has a central role in the Chinese initiative ‘One Belt, One Road’ and the develop ment of the railway across this country, as well as in connecting Croatia with Asia along the existing corridors via Ukraine and Belarus.
We hope to see in the near future growth in figures and about Croatia being the most important EU partner of Azerbaijan.
