Latvian Ambassador in Azerbaijan Juris Maklakovs has highlighted the relations between the two countries in an interview with local media.

The Ambassador hailed the political relations: “I would like to rate our political cooperation as excellent. During the last years we have had several mutual visits. High-level authorities of Latvia visited Azerbaijan, and representatives of different institutions of Azerbaijan visited Latvia.”

On the bilateral economic cooperation, Mr Maklakovs said: “I am not satisfied with the current level of economic cooperation. There is a lot of room for improvement in this field. This is actually the main priority of our Embassy. If we look at our possible cooperation and improvement in trade turnover I see many possibilities where we can achieve it. We had several meetings at Azerbaijani ministries. During the discussions we found many areas for cooperation where we can improve and start such cooperation.”
Mr Maklakovs also highlighted the Embassy`s activities. “Next month we plan to bring Mayor of Riga and some entrepreneurs to Baku. They will attend the 15th Azerbaijan International Travel and Tourism Fair, AITF 2016. During the trip, there will be held a business forum. We would like to discuss possible cooperation in the field of tourism. We also plan to hold a meeting of Azerbaijan-Latvia Intergovernmental Commission on Economic, Technical and Cultural Issues in May.”

The Latvian Ambassador commented on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He said Latvia supports the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. “During all meetings, discussions we say that only a peaceful solution can bring final settlement to this conflict. It is very important to have communication between the two parties, also through Minsk Group, through discussions in different international organizations. Recently we had a very good meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. Representatives of Latvia who are responsible for Eastern Partnership had a very fruitful meeting. This is another opportunity where the two parties could meet. It is also a possible platform for solving this problem,” Mr Maklakovs added.