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Today we have the 18th meeting of the Cooperation Council with Azerbaijan.  

This was a great opportunity to review the overall state of our relations, to express our interest in strengthening the bilateral cooperation, to highlight our commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous South Caucasus region. 

In the current difficult geopolitical context, it is important to strengthen the dialogue among partners, as we are. I appreciated, today, the open and constructive exchanges that we have had. 

Azerbaijan is an important partner for the European Union and our cooperation is intensifying.  

I am very glad to welcome the signature of the EU and Azerbaijan Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the Field of Energy, by the President of the [European] Commission [Ursula] von der Leyen in Baku, yesterday. This Memorandum will allow to double the delivery of gas from Azerbaijan to the European Union by 2027. It paves the way to our future energy partnership, including in renewable [energy] and energy efficiency.  

We are also in the crucial phase of negotiating a new Comprehensive Cooperation and Partnership Agreement. This new agreement will lay the ground for our enhanced cooperation and policy dialogue. It will also support Azerbaijan’s efforts to diversify the economy and to build a healthy climate for businesses and foreign investments. 

In the exchanges that we have had today, we also took stock of more challenging issues of our cooperation. Respect of human rights and rule of law are at the core of our relations, as agreed jointly in the Partnership Priorities.  

Decisive progress is needed to create an enabling environment for an active civil society, and to ensure the respect of human rights in line with international standards and commitments undertaken by Azerbaijan. In particular, we draw the attention to and we discussed the new Media Law in Azerbaijan. 

We have also discussed the wider regional issues and neighbourly relations, in particular with Armenia.  

We are supporting all efforts to make the South Caucasus a secure, stable and prosperous space for all its people.  In this regard, I welcome the meeting between the ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia that took place last Saturday in Tbilisi - and I thank the Minister [for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Jeyhun Bayramov] for the information he provided about this meeting. The European Union is ready to support these efforts, and is actively working on helping to bridge the differences and to bring solutions. 

On other pressing issues, I reiterated our strong condemnation of Russia’s unprovoked and illegitimate aggression against Ukraine, which has also a negative impact on the South Caucasus.  

In this context, I expressed a strong appreciation for the humanitarian assistance that Azerbaijan is providing to Ukraine. 

Thank you. 

Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-228817