Israeli partners in the post-Soviet space

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Recently the deputy interior minister of Israel, Faina Kirshenbaum, and the deputy minister of foreign affairs of Israel, Zeev Elkin, have visited Russia. They discussed with their Russian colleagues development of Russian-Israeli relations, migration policy, and other problems.

Faina Kirschenbaum, the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Israel, noted that Israel and Russia had many common problems which should be solved. For example, she mentioned that the introduction of biometric passports will begin in July both in Israel and in Russia. At the meeting with the FMS leadership she discussed the topic of biometrics, the kind of biometrics, security of data, biometric data bank. In addition, they touched on the issue of illegal migration. “We always think that it only applies to Israel. We understand how sensitive this issue is in Russia as well,” Faina Kirschenbaum said.

Moreover, the Israeli delegation touched on the problem of drug abuse; Faina Kirschenbaum has personally supervised the sphere for many years. Last year a Russian delegation was on a visit to Israel, studied the system of fighting drug addiction and rehabilitation. At the end of October the other delegation of the Federal Drug Control Service will come to Israel. Faina Kirschenbaum stated that after the previous visit of the delegation to Israel, a book was written, the rules of operation. “We are trying to work out a joint standardization on Drug Abuse, and the most important thing is standardization and regulation in the field of rehabilitation and support of these people, bringing them back to normal healthy society,” the deputy interior minister of Israel said.

The Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, Zeev Elkin told Vestnik Kavkaza on cooperation between Israel and the South Caucasus countries.

“Israel has a productive dialogue with all three countries in the South Caucasus – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. In recent months, there were very intense, successful visits to Israel from the Georgian side. We received the Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister and the Minister of Internal Affairs of Georgia. Now we are waiting for the Georgian president. We received also the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, it was also a historic visit of its kind. We discussed many topics of bilateral cooperation, especially in the economic field, but not only. Prospects are numerous, relationships are very good. Despite all the internal problems from time to time in the South Caucasus, we are pursuing a policy of good-neighborly relations and good communication and strengthening those ties with Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. And this is going to develop in the future. For us it is an important priority. More visits are planned in the near future. I look with great optimism to the development of relations between us and the three Caucasus countries,” Zeev Elkin said.

Speaking about Azerbaijan, he noted that Israel and the country had a very large amount of economic cooperation. This is nearly $4 billion a year. It is more than co-operation between Israel and Russia even.

As for experience exchange, Israel has experience in areas where it can be very useful. “For example, in the field of agricultural technology Israel is one of the leading countries today. There is great interest in the use of Israeli technology from Georgia and from Azerbaijan. Israel has very interesting experience in water systems, which is heavily used by Azerbaijan. There are related projects already, and there is interest on the part of Georgia. Of course, in all that relates to high-tech, Israel is one of the leading countries in the world today in this field. Therefore, here too, there is a lot of interest, and we discuss many common projects. We also have medical tourism, of course. That is, there are a lot of different areas. We talk about facilitating the visa regime with these countries in order to intensify communication and consultation in regard to the fight against terror and subtle issues related to security,” Zeev Elkin concluded.