Ambassador: Azerbaijan-Armenia peace process opens up additional opportunities for Estonian companies

Vaino Reynart, non-resident, extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador of Estonia to Azerbaijan, in an interview with Report News Agency, spoke about the normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia, as well as about possible avenues for the comprehensive development of Azerbaijani-Estonian relations.

- Mr. Ambassador, while presenting your credentials, the President of Azerbaijan noted the importance of expanding bilateral relations with Estonia, identifying new opportunities for the development of cooperation in trade, economy, investment and other areas. What opportunities do you think exist for the development of relations between Azerbaijan and Estonia?

- Indeed, when delivering my Credentials to President Aliyev last year, we had a very substantial discussion about the opportunities for cooperation between Azerbaijan and Estonia. In addition to the well-known oil and gas industry, Azerbaijan also pays a lot of attention to other economic areas interesting for Estonian companies, such as green and digital transformations. Estonian companies have invented and implemented a lot of innovative designs providing us with limitless opportunities for cooperation. And of course, the ongoing peace process between Azerbaijan and Armenia opens up many additional opportunities in other areas as well, Estonian companies could be interested in making use of improved logistics and transit opportunities in particular.

- In what areas does Estonia attach importance to cooperation with Azerbaijan? What is the trade turnover between the two countries? What do you buy and sell from Azerbaijan?

- As already mentioned, digital transformation is one of the most interesting areas of cooperation for Estonian IT companies. Azerbaijan in one of the first countries implementing the Estonian invented X-Road model in its e-government systems in January 2018. This milestone marked Azerbaijan as the first country outside Estonia to adopt a prototype of the X-Road platform for secure and interoperable data exchange between government systems. X-Road technology enables secure, encrypted data exchange between various public and private sector databases. Azerbaijan joined other countries like Finland, Namibia, Ukraine, Japan, and the Faroe Islands in adopting X-Road, though it was the first to implement a prototype version.

Speaking about trade, trade turnover between us was limited to 27 million Euros last year, constituting less than 0,1 percent of Estonian foreign trade. Like many other countries, Estonia buys oil and gas from Azerbaijan, our exports to Azerbaijan is a bit more comprehensive consisting of plastic products, mechanical equipment and live animals to mention just some of them.

- Estonia and Azerbaijan have had relations since the Soviet era, as part of the USSR. How many Azerbaijani citizens live in Estonia?

- Actually, our relations date back way more than the era of Soviet occupation, limited Estonian community existed in Azerbaijani territory already at the end of 19th Century, it was not particularly sizeable though. The Azerbaijani community in Estonia is several thousand heads strong and is well organised.

- You have stated that Estonia supports Azerbaijan's international efforts to reach a peace agreement with Armenia. Have you been to Karabakh? Many countries have various activities in Karabakh. Does Estonia have any plans in this direction?

- The head of the Office of the Embassy in Baku Mr. Jaak Lensment has visited Karabakh repeatedly. The Speaker of the Parliament of Estonia Mr. Jüri Ratas also visited Karabakh on his official visit to Azerbaijan in 2022. They have truly been pleased to see the fast pace of development of Karabakh. From the perspective of Estonian businesses, they are of course encouraged to find business opportunities wherever in Azerbaijan they emerge.

- In your opinion, what is needed to expand our diplomatic relations?

- Estonia is fully prepared to intensify political interaction between our countries, during the recent visit to Baku by our Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna several opportunities for cooperation were discussed, including resuming a regular political dialogue as well as possible sectoral visits. As you know, Minister Tsahkna was accompanied by a sizeable business delegation, we expect a business delegation from Azerbaijan to visit Estonia in the coming weeks. In the light of the improved regional perspective, I believe our companies will find more attractive opportunities for further cooperation.

- How do you assess the relations between Estonia and Azerbaijan within the framework of the Council of Europe and other international platforms? Considering that it was during Estonia's leadership that Azerbaijan received guest status in the Council of Europe.

- Estonia highly values political cooperation between likeminded countries both bilaterally as well as in the framework of international organizations, including, but not limited to, the Council of Europe and several UN bodies, where Estonia and Azerbaijan have supported each other on several occasions on the elections to the UN bodies as well as to the bodies of the WHO and UNESCO.

- What can you say about the development of our inter-parliamentary relations?

- We believe our inter-parliamentary cooperation really stands out. The Parliamentary friendship groups visit each other regularly, the Speakers of our Parliaments have also visited each other recently, more visits have been planned.

- Are high-level reciprocal visits expected in the near future?

- As I mentioned, our Foreign Minister Tsahkna visited Azerbaijan at the end of October, several other visits are being considered, for the sake of good order, we do not advertise visits until after they have been confirmed. We have a number of visits in the pipeline, however.

- Mr. Ambassador, cultural relations between our countries have developed rapidly in recent years. "The Book of Dede Gorgud", one of the most valuable national monuments of the Azerbaijani people, has been published in Estonian. The publication of the Estonian-Azerbaijani dictionary is a wonderful tool that facilitates communication between the peoples of Estonia and Azerbaijan. What are your priorities for the further development of these relations?

- The emblematic piece of Azerbaijani culture - Kitabi Dede Gorgud, which contains the texts over 1300 years old, has been translated into Estonian (by Anneli Pekonen and Vidadi Mamedov) with the support of Estonian Culture Capital Fund some years ago. Also, the EE-AZ and AZ-EE dictionaries have been published. Estonia has a long-lasting tradition of translating to Estonian language masterpieces of other nations, including from Azerbaijan. Let me mention just some of the works by Rasul Rza, Anar, Ilyas Afandiyev, Sabir Azeri, Chingiz Abdullayev, in 2014 Kurban Said´s book "Ali ja Nino" translated by Annely Pekkonen was published.

As I mentioned before, we have a sizeable Azerbaijani community in Estonia, we also have Estonian community in Azerbaijan, both of these communities are instrumental in promoting each other"s cultures in our countries. The Azerbaijani community in Estonia is well organised, we hope it also serves as a good example for the Estonian community in Baku.