The head of the Azeri-Croatian parliamentary group for inter-parliamentary relations, MP Konul Nurrullayeva of Azerbaijan, announced cooperation between several regions and cities in the two countries while visiting Karlovac on Tuesday, state agency Hina said.

Azerbaijan’s ambassador to Croatia, Fakhraddin Gurbanov, said negotiations were also under way on supplying Croatia with larger quantities of gas.

“He said the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline was a priority, and that it would be good for supplying Croatia with gas, but that he could not go into details as this was still only being negotiated,” Hina said, without clarifying what he was talking about.

Nurrullayeva said Croatia’s Varazdin County and the Azeri city Sheki had been cooperating since 2018.

“Negotiations are under way to expand cooperation to the companies Naftalan in Ivanic-Grad and Turbine Works Karlovac (TTK), and for Ivanic-Grad and Karlovac to begin cooperation with two Azeri cities,” she said, adding that “the cities and companies will be proposed by this parliamentary group upon returning to Azerbaijan.”

Nurrullayeva said she was confident that tomorrow’s meeting in the Croatian parliament would be successful and “benefit both countries.”

The head of the Croatian-Azerbaijani parliamentary friendship group, MP Maja Grba-Bujevic, said there was plenty of room to expand the cooperation between the two countries, notably in energy, IT, culture and education. She said Croatia would propose advancing the cooperation because Azerbaijan “has natural oil and gas reserves.”

Karlovac County head, Martina Furdek-Hajdin, said she was willing to support better economic cooperation but by balancing trade, given that it stands at 80-20 in Azerbaijan’s favor due its export of oil products to Croatia.

“Croatian exporters to Azerbaijan are the metal-working companies TTK, arms manufacturer HS produkt, Croatiapumpe, and Doking,” she said, adding that cooperation can be advanced and Croatian exports increased. “Azerbaijan is undergoing reconstruction and needs cooperation with the construction sector,” she noted.

Last year Croatia’s export to Azerbaijan totalled $5.8 million, while imports totaled $756.6 million. Over the first eight months of 2022, some 1,343 Azerbaijani tourists visited Croatia, generating 5,550 bed nights.

Representatives of both parliamentary groups visited the TTK company, whose founder Ivan Miksic said they cooperated with Azerbaijan in the export of turbines. TTK also makes ship equipment and heat turbines for industry, notably shipbuilding and biomass co-generation plants, and it is also “successful in overhauling energy equipment and upgrading heat turbines with capacity up to 200 MW,” he added.