Yesterday, Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs visited Azerbaijan. The head of state met with Ilham Aliyev one-on-one. After the meeting, the leaders made statements to the press.
The Latvian President stated that they fully support the visa-free regime between the European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan.
Currently, it is interesting to know what steps are being taken in this direction between Azerbaijan and the European Union, and how realistic it is to switch to a visa-free regime.
In a statement to Modern.az, Javanshir Feyziyev, a member of the International Relations and Interparliamentary Relations Committee of the Milli Majlis, stated that a relevant agreement must be reached between Azerbaijan and the European Union for visa-free travel:
“To reach such an agreement with the European Union, the consent of all member states is needed. Currently, Azerbaijani citizens can travel visa-free to all EU member countries with diplomatic and service passports. For travel with ordinary citizen passports, the agreement between us and the EU must be updated. Work has been ongoing for several years on a comprehensive cooperation agreement between Azerbaijan and the EU. After the work on the agreement is finalized, if all EU member countries agree, an agreement for visa-free travel between Azerbaijan and the EU as a whole can be reached.”
Political scientist Elkhan Shahinoglu, on the other hand, stated that reaching an agreement on visa-free or simplified visa travel to European countries would be a very good thing:
“Latvia is a member of the European Union. That is, it is not capable of ensuring visa-free travel with any country, including Azerbaijan, on its own. For this, there must be a decision from official Brussels. Azerbaijani citizens currently obtain a Schengen visa to travel to Latvia. Of course, reaching an agreement on visa-free or simplified visa travel with the EU would be very good. There is a need to expand negotiations in this direction.”
The political scientist added that the EU applied the same procedure to Georgia:
“Georgian citizens travel visa-free to EU countries. It is true that certain contradictions arose between the European Union and the Georgian government. But the EU already has such a practice. Latvia is in favor of close cooperation with Azerbaijan. If such a simplified visa issue is agreed upon between the EU and Azerbaijan, it will be possible to travel completely freely with Latvia as well.”
