Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev is set to travel to China on an official visit, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Lu Kang, said.
"President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev will arrive on an official visit to China on December 8-11 at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping," APA cited him as saying.
The ex-deputy minister for the economy of Azerbaijan, economic expert Oktay Akhverdiyev, told Vestnik Kavkaza that cooperation between the two countries is actively developing. "As far as I know, we have built a new seaport recently. In the middle of next year we will have the largest seaport in the Caspian Sea. Two trains arrived in Kazakhstan from China by rail, then to Baku by ferry and from there to Europe. So we began to recover the Silk Road. In general, the issue of how to develop this cooperation will be addressed during the visit," he said.
"In addition, we are one of the founders of the Infrastructure Investment Bank with a capital of $50 billion. This is an investment union which will attract foreign investments to Azerbaijan," the expert added.
However, the bilateral cooperation is not limited by this. "For example, we have bought the securities of China. In addition, in recent years there are Chinese nationals who are engaged in business and investment in our economy. And we are interested, because China is the second-largest economy in the world. That is, China has great prospects. But mostly we are a link between the Far East and Europe. Experts have calculated that one will gain about 10 days during transportation through the territory of Azerbaijan," Oktay Akhverdiyev added.
The political scientist Rovshan Ibragimov, in his turn, expressed the view that "in principle, the summit has been brewing for a long time, considering the fact that Azerbaijan, as an alternative to the energy sector, is considering the development of a transport corridor in two directions – North-South and West-East. "The Republic provides the necessary infrastructure for it. At the beginning of next year the Baku-Tbilisi–Kars railway will come into operation. And in this case it coincides with the interests of China, which is very active in developing infrastructure in the Central Asian region in accordance with its Eurasian project 'One Belt, One Road'. Accordingly, it is creating different transport infrastructures: pipelines, highways, railways and roads," he said.
"The South Caucasus is a logical extension to the Chinese infrastructure zone and Azerbaijan can offer the necessary infrastructure. China is also interested in the use of the transport routes through Azerbaijan, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to transport Chinese goods. At the initial stage it can reach from 5 to 15 million tons," the expert added.
"Of course, there may be interests of a different nature between the two countries, such as cooperation in the military, energy sectors and other areas," he said.
The political scientist reminded that China prefers to build relations with its partners in a bilateral format. "And Azerbaijan is very satisfied with this, because it also prefers to develop relations in a bilateral format. And if this cooperation corresponds to the national interests, as it is mutually beneficial, Azerbaijan always wants to participate in such projects," Rovshan Ibragimov concluded.
