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Qabil Ashirov

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Azerbaijan is one of the rare countries in the East that has been able to combine European values with its Islamic culture and adopt it. The country attaches importance to cooperation with countries of the old continent and the history of the cooperation dates back hundreds of years, and even further to the Albanian Caucasus. The cooperation has gathered momentum, especially for the last 30 years, after Azerbaijan got its independence, and Britain became the largest investor in the country, and the EU became the biggest trade partner. Today, the share of the EU in Azerbaijan's export amounts to 67 percent, and in imports, it totaled 20 percent.

It should be mentioned that in the first years of its independence, as a matter of course Azerbaijan preferred to cooperate with the big countries of the old continent, such as Britain, Italy, and so on.

Now, Azerbaijan intends to diversify its cooperation in Europe, and Hungary steps forward in this process. Currently, the trade turnover between Hungary and Azerbaijan is not so big (amounted to $47m in 2022), but the reciprocal official visits, and signed documents covering from agriculture to security foreshadow broad-based changes. The signs of these agreements have been already started to reveal. For example, the largest greenhouse farm in Khizi, Azerbaijan is being constructed by a Hungarian company, and the project is financed by Hungarian Export-Import Bank. It is worth noting that the export of vegetables and fruits plays an important role in Azerbaijan’s non-gas-and-oil export, totaling over 20 percent and the greenhouse constructed by the Hungarian company will give a benefit to the export when it will start operation.

Besides, Hell energy drink company of Hungary has a big share in the energy beverage market of Azerbaijan. It obtains over 60 percent of the market. On July 10, 2023, the Azerbaijani Investment Company and Hell Energy Group reached an agreement to build a factory worth $211m.

Another good news is that a total of 800 million pieces of aluminum beverage boxes will be produced annually in the factory.

It could be considered as a significant step in Azerbaijani economy, because the energy drinking is a promising market and with the help of this factory Azerbaijan can provide not only domestic market but also the market of CIS countries with energy drinks. Unlike greenhouse, it is new type of production for Azerbaijan, the country will get know-how and moreover it will create permanent workplaces.

On top of above-mentioned, Hungary also made investment to the oil sector in Azerbaijan, and it is considered the largest Hungarian investment in the Caucasus.

MOL, Hungarian oil and gas company, and the US Chevron Hungry signed an agreement, and MOL acquired a 9.5 percent stake in the Azeri oil field and 9 percent stake in the largest oil pipeline of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.

Certainly, business cooperation between Azerbaijan and Hungary is not limited with agriculture, industry and oil, it also covers other sectors, such as gas and green energy.

Frankly speaking, gas deal between Azerbaijan and European countries led by Hungary has totally different and interesting background.

Although wars are generally a burden for the world and require extra effort, sometimes countries that can reduce this burden and have high potential play the role of saviors. Azerbaijan can be considered one of those savior countries. With the start of the Ukrainian war, an energy crisis broke out in Europe. This tension began to manifest itself more in the east of Europe.

At that time, Hungary was among the countries in search of more energy among Central and Eastern European countries. Thus, demand meets supply - Eastern Europe turns to Baku, the beacon of the South Caucasus, and economic relations begin to sprout.

This happened at a time when Russia was already using gas exports to Europe as a weapon. Frequent interruptions in gas exports, unknown provocations against the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines almost led Europe to completely search for new energy.

Of course, one aspect of this search was also related to reliability and a long-term and stable partnership.
Finally, according to the current situation, Azerbaijan undertakes this great initiative. As the most reliable partner, Azerbaijan can direct Europe's hopes to the South Caucasus. All this is not so easy to express in words.

Azerbaijan has proven its reliability with large export figures, and as the closest partner, it has riveted the interests of Hungary to the country.

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Qabil Ashirov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @g_Ashirov

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