Baku, January 5 AZERTAC

In his exclusive interview to AZERTAC`s correspondent, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Azerbaijan Mr. Rafael Harpaz spoke of the Azerbaijani-Israeli relations across the last year, and highlighted current state and prospects of bilateral cooperation.

- Mr. Ambassador, how do you appreciate the current state of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Israel for 2014?

- We are in the beginning of the New Year. If we look back we have a lot of achievements reached in our bilateral relations in the past year. Firstly, I would like to say that in Israel we have a lot of appreciation for the leadership of President Ilham Aliyev. During this period, 5 Israeli leaders met with President Ilham Aliyev. First it was President Shimon Peres to meet with Azerbaijani President in Davos, then, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the Azerbaijani head of state in Davos. Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has met President here when he come Nizami Ganjavi International Conference. Foreign Minister Avigdor Libermann and the Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon met the President. All of them expressed gratitude and appreciated the efforts done to develop our bilateral relations, aiming at developing in Azerbaijan of the wonderful economy and strengthening of the non-energy sector for bilateral interests to develop these relations further. When it comes for prospects in 2015, I think we succeeded in diversifying our relations in many areas. There is very strong political component of our relations, very close dialogue between friends. During the Azerbaijan International Defence Industry Exhibition (ADEX) the Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya'alon came here. 16 big Israeli companies are working here with Azerbaijani Government. The non-energy sector is very important and very active here both in agriculture and water technologies, telecommunication, tourism, medical technologies both in training and information exchange. The top of this is the energy sector which is very important for us to acquire Azerbaijani experience. We are in the beginning in this field and it is very important for us to learn this experience. We have also succeeded very well in developing our cultural, scientific relations.

- What is your opinion about the groundless news published in some Israeli newspapers related to Azerbaijan?

- We have very strong, powerful relationship basing on deep strategic partnership with the Azerbaijani leadership. Our officials meet and we discuss as we usually do in private not in public. It is very clear as I mentioned we have very intermediate discussions, we have great friends in Azerbaijan and official issues we prefer to discuss in private as we do. We have traditional meetings with Israeli and Azerbaijani leaders. If we look at our history of relations, it started during the years of national leader Heydar Aliyev and continues under President Ilham Aliyev.

- How do the Israeli sportsmen train themselves for the First European Games?

- The European Games in Baku is very important for Israel, and it will be a successful event. As the strength of Azerbaijan, the beauty of this country is very important. We have a large delegation from Israel and I think will help all of us to tell the story of this country. I am a big sport fan. I see the sport media in Israel how they discuss this. Because there is a criterion very important for people to go to Rio Olympics through the Games in Baku, the delegation will comprise between 100-200 peoples, it is big for Israel in many of the sports and still in the process of the recruit already 100 athletes themselves guaranteed their place, but still they are in the process of selection. I am sure that it is very great success story and great opportunity to introduce this beautiful country and beautiful achievements to the public.

I was in the US three months ago. I met with the Azerbaijani Ambassador Elin Suleymanov, who told the history of Azerbaijan. We were in Washington, Philadelphia, and New-York and took part at more than thirty events in eight days. It is a lot to tell the story of this country, of its success, our bilateral relations are unique and the story of Jewish community and I am very happy I could do it. That was the purpose of my trip.

- What are the future prospects of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the coming year?

- We are also looking forward to sign few other agreements during the next year, especially to promote the trade and business between the two countries. Two agreements almost are in the end of discussions which are double taxation and standardization agreements. The goal is to create a condition that will make the private sector and public sector to work much easier to work for the businessmen of both countries. I hope in 2015 we accomplish them.

AZAL flights twice a week to Israel. Actually, now with the flights to New-York has a connection to Tel-Aviv. Many Jewish from the US are using these flights.

Academic cooperation is an area, which I think is very important. University of Haifa will sign a cooperation agreement with the University of Languages of Azerbaijan.

When it comes to energy, it is an issue which is challenging to us. Still is debated in Israel, which percentage of gas we can export. 

Scientific cooperation is very important, and we are working closely with Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences much. There are many topics on the agenda. Special efforts we are giving on cultural ties. I am happy that last year Azerbaijani mugham was played in Jerusalem Festival. We have both in the Gabala international Festival and Jazz Festival in Israel, where the key players performed. We also translated to Israeli the literature in Azerbaijani language. When I was appointed an ambassador, somebody came and gave me Hebrew translation of Nizami Ganjavi`s “Khamsa”. I was fascinated. I came to Azerbaijan in 2012. I went to Ganja to wonderful Mausoleum of the “Shakespeare of the Caucasus”. I decided to promote a project of translation of Israeli literature into Azerbaijani language.