Radoslaw Sikorski and Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov: photo - PAP/Leszek Szymanski
“Poland has taken up the presidency of the Visegrad Group,” Sikorski noted at a press conference in Baku on Monday together with Azerbaijan's foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
“This group, together with Bulgaria and Romania, could increase its consumption of gas by a good few billion cubic metres a year,” he said.
“It seems to me that this creates interesting business opportunities for Azerbaijan."
Sikorski conducted talks with members of the Visegrad Group (besides Poland including the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia) earlier this month in which he raised the question of fuel.
Poland, like its partners in the region, is keen to become less dependent on Russian energy resources.
During the foreign minister's talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart as well as with the country's president, Ilham Alijev, Sikorski also discussed matters pertaining to the EU in general.
“We would like to see Azerbaijani students, tourists and investors in the European Union,” Sikorski reflected.
He also outlined a prospective loosening of visa restrictions for Azerbaijani citizens in a gesture towards consolidating the EU's Eastern Partnership.
Azerbaijan is one of seven members in the EU's Eastern Partnership, which aims at strengthening political and economic relations between the EU and six former Soviet republics.
The Eastern Partnership was proposed by Sikorski to the EU in 2008 on behalf of the Polish Foreign Ministry, with assistance from Sweden.
Sikorski said that Poland could help Azerbaijan with streamlining its border controls to meet Schengen standards.
Sikorski's trip marks the twentieth anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Poland and the Azerbaijan.
During today's conference, Minister Mammadyarov remained non-committal about precisely where Azerbaijani gas would be sold to, stating that a final decision would be made in 2013.
In the meantime, Poland is also conducting drills on home territory, with a view to exploiting its shale gas resources. (nh)
Source: PAP