Energy Central-News Article

VILNIUS, Lithuania, May 22. Lithuania may provide renewable energy technologies to Azerbaijan, Egidijus Navikas, Ambassador of Lithuania to Azerbaijan, said in an exclusive interview with Trend May 22.

“Talks on energy cooperation have been taking place in the past as well. It is first of all about geography and then about technical possibilities. The idea of swapping gas has been discussed. There should be business counterparts which should go into technical details. These discussions will be continued. Lithuania is very much interested in renewable energy projects in Azerbaijan, as we are becoming exporters of technology for solar, wind energy. Our businesses are expected to make proposals to the Azerbaijani side in this sphere,” he said.

Navikas pointed out that Azerbaijan-Lithuania relations are good at all levels.

“Speaking of political level, Lithuania has always supported Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity. We have regular visits, meetings, especially this spring was fruitful. We had ministerial visit, now we have presidential visit. The highest level contacts give impetus to development of relations in other spheres, as follow up of agreed cooperation sectors,” he said.

The ambassador believes that there is still much to do in the economic dimension of relations.

“We’ve made progress in trade turnover, it has increased in the past couple of years. But still, there is a big potential. Vilnius will host Azerbaijan-Lithuania business forum with quite substantial number of businessmen from both countries.

We continue to be proactive in various projects with Azerbaijan, especially, twinning projects. We had 17 twinning projects, with 12 of them already implemented. Five of them are still ongoing,” he said.

Talking about the changing transport map of Eurasia, Navikas went on to add that Lithuania and the entire EU supports the Middle Corridor, especially, in the current context.

“It is an absolute priority. For Central Asia and other Asian countries this route is becoming more and more important. Lithuanian businesses are also interested in Baku Port. Azerbaijani businesses are looking at opportunities at Klaipeda Port. Klaipeda port remains for Azerbaijani businesses an opportunity, because it is one of the non-frozen ports in Baltic Sea. Exporting to EU markets through Lithuania is a good option,” he concluded.