Joining the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) is not on the agenda of Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said.
“Azerbaijan has not received an official application to join the structure mentioned above (the EEU) and this issue is not on the country’s agenda,” local media cited the foreign minister as saying Thursday, Itar Tass reported.
Mammadyarov said that his country was conducting an independent policy and “both in political and trade relationship it focuses on the bilateral format, which is fully justified from the point of view of mutually beneficial cooperation.”
Speaking about ties between Russia and Azerbaijan, Mammadyarov pointed out that the two countries had “warm and friendly relations based on mutual respect and bilateral beneficial cooperation.”
“An expanding circle of our ties in politics, economy, trade, mutual investments, security, the fight against terrorism, in the military, technical and humanitarian spheres and others deserves praise,” he said. “As a neighboring state, Russia is one of Azerbaijan’s major trade partners.”
“We can only laud the intensity of reciprocal visits at all levels between Azerbaijan and Russia in line with the dynamics of bilateral ties,” the foreign minister said.
EEU will be an economic union of states located primarily in northern Eurasia. A treaty aiming for the establishment of the EEU was signed in May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Armenia, and will come into force on January 1.
The population of the union is around 171 million people and its gross domestic product is expected to reach $3 trillion next year.
