Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic met with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, in Zagreb on Thursday, saying after the meeting that Croatia sees Azerbaijan as a strategic partner and supports improving bilateral relations in economy, energy and security cooperation.

“Croatia sees Azerbaijan as a strategic partner, in accordance with the Declaration on Strategic Partnership signed in 2013, Croatia will remain a true friend to Azerbaijan within the EU, and it supports Azerbaijan’s decision to develop individual relations with the European Union,” Grabar-Kitarovic said after the talks with her Aliyev, who is on a one-day visit to Croatia.

Their meeting focused on the countries’ “great cooperation potential in energy, the economy, culture, science and technology, and education.”

She also announced that Croatia has decided to open an embassy in Baku, in order to step up bilateral cooperation. Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Zagreb in 2011.

Azerbaijan wants better trade with Croatia, which is why the joint economic commission should continue to do a serious job and simply increase the trade and the realisation of the bilateral project, Aliyev said.

Croatia is in deficit in trade with Azerbaijan. Trade in 2017 amounted to €226.1 million, up 3.4 percent compared to the year before. Croatia’s exports to Azerbaijan in 2017 amounted to only €698,000, down 53 percent on the year, while imports from Azerbaijan was €225.4 million, up 3.9 percent on the year. Croatia’s trade deficit amounted to €224.6 million in 2017.

Aliyev said his country was implementing large energy projects which will enable the delivery of large amounts of natural gas to European countries. Over the next two years, Azerbaijan will be ready to deliver natural gas to European markets which will be an important contribution to European energy security, Aliyev said adding that cooperation with Croatia was very important in that context.

Grabar-Kitarovic said that Croatia, as one of future European gas hubs, was interested in energy cooperation. “Croatia wants to become a gas supplier for central Europe, through an Adriatic-Ionian Gas Pipeline (IAP),” Grabar-Kitarovic said after her talks with Aliyev.

During her official visit this oil rich country in 2016, Grabar Kitarovic said Croatia was very satisfied with the decision of the Shah Deniz consortium (2013) on the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline as an integral part of the Southern Gas Corridor and an optimal option for gas supply of South East Europe.

The Southern Gas Corridor, estimated at over 45 billion dollars, is currently one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, and its route goes from the Caspian gas field of Shah Deniz II via Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Greece and Albania to Italy.

The Fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor Advisory Council took place in Baku this February when European Commission Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic also described this project as strategic for energy security of Europe.

A section of the gas corridor called the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) runs from Greece via Albania to Italy, and Croatia could join it through an Adriatic-Ionian Gas Pipeline (IAP). The two corridors – IAP and TAP – are to be interconnected in Albania.

In 2016, Croatia, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro as well as the executives of Azerbaijan’s SOCAR oil and gas company signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of the future Ionian-Adriatic gas pipeline.

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