Corridors bring to light – Newspaper Kommersant No. 214 (7415) dated 11/18/2022

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin arrived in Baku on Thursday for a two-day visit – the key topic of both the speeches at the XI Azerbaijan-Russian Interregional Forum and the talks between the heads of government of the two countries was the expansion of cooperation. Thus, the key direction of this work is the transition from traditional trade cooperation to building a common economic space through the development of transport corridors and industrial cooperation.

Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin’s first foreign visit outside the Eurasian Economic Union since February 24, albeit within the framework of the post-Soviet space, was a working trip to Azerbaijan. On Thursday, the Russian prime minister arrived in Baku, where the guest was first given a small cultural program – a tour, accompanied by Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov, of the exposition of the Heydar Aliyev Center, built according to the project of Zaha Hadid. It should be noted that Mikhail Mishustin met his Azerbaijani counterpart quite recently – in Astana at the end of October at a meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the CIS (see “Kommersant” dated October 31). However, the last meeting was symbolic, it fell on the state holiday of Azerbaijan – National Revival Day.

The content of the visit involved the development of presidential agreements on building up cooperation, including in the economic sphere.

Recall, in February, Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev signed a declaration on allied cooperation, which implies the possibility of providing military assistance, military-technical cooperation, as well as a promise to refrain from any economic activity that directly or indirectly damages the interests of the other side. On Thursday, the prime ministers of the two countries took part in the XI Azerbaijan-Russia Interregional Forum dedicated to expanding business ties: Russian governors and executive heads of Azerbaijani cities discussed joint projects of both investment and cultural nature, and then Russian and Azerbaijani officials gathered at the negotiating table. In terms of interstate cooperation, Mikhail Mishustin and Ali Asadov noted an increase in trade both in 2021 (however, they differed in their estimates: Moscow records an increase of 16%, and Baku – 12%), and in January-October 2022 – by 20%, up to $3 billion

As the head of the Ministry of Economy Maxim Reshetnikov, who visited the forum, assured, the trade turnover between the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan due to the reorientation of exports and imports (obviously, due to sanctions and the rupture of supply chains) could double in the coming years (over the past six years, the growth was 80%). To do this, according to the minister, it is necessary to move from “traditional trade cooperation to building a comprehensive joint economic space.” In turn, Mikhail Mishustin gave this idea a political connotation, noting that in the face of sanctions by Western countries, which “are trying to destroy the established architecture of the multilateral trading system,” it is necessary to “look for new formats of cooperation.”

In particular, we are talking about the development of transport and logistics infrastructure, primarily railway, road and sea, within the international North-South corridor (by 2030, it is planned to increase the volume of cargo transportation along the western route to 15 million tons per year).

However, as Maxim Reshetnikov noted, this work must be carried out in conjunction with the creation of industrial cooperation points so that “cargo does not pass by” and the growth in transportation is accompanied by an increase in mutual production. Russian business in Azerbaijan has already launched assembly plants for trucks, agricultural machinery, and is also working on cooperation projects in the field of shipbuilding, but trade, production and investment require a financial infrastructure independent of third countries (due to sanctions against the Russian Federation), primarily an increase in the share settlements in national currencies, as well as the use of alternative Western payment systems. So far, the minister said, this issue is being worked on.

Evgenia Kryuchkova, Baku