Slovak expert: Azerbaijan can play role in West's green transition

Azerbaijan not only can play a role in energy security of Europe, but also in green transition of the West and its neighboring countries by offering a lot of gas supplies, Slovakian political observer Jozef Hrabina told Report, commenting on the statements made by his country's Prime Minister Robert Fico as part of the visit to Baku on May 7.

He noted that definitely a Caspian region gas, not only Azerbaijani gas, but also other countries in the region, can contribute to diversification of European gas supplies.

"So we can call the Southern Gas Corridor a lifeline to the European Union and its gas needs. And this also goes for Ukraine. We know that the gas transit contract for Ukraine ends this year and I have certainly no hopes in prolonging this contract," Hrabina said.

The expert noted that Russia is likely to play lesser and lesser role in European gas supplies.

"And therefore the question is who is going to step in? Because we have 200 billion cu m of gas needs in entire Europe. I'm not sure about the numbers, but we're talking about incredible amounts of gas that we need for our economies. Otherwise our industries will die out. So this is probably the best solution because buying LNG gas that is overly expensive is increasing the cost of our production. And this impacts our prices of our exports, which is making our international exports less competitive on international markets," he said.

Hrabina noted that Azerbaijan can step in via the Southern Corridor.

"We really see China, India and other growing countries that can offer relatively equally technological, very good industrial products or manufactured products compared to Europe, but for the better price. So we really need to tackle this issue. And I definitely think that Azerbaijan can step in via the southern corridor. I think it would be worth considering to review other projects that were on the table in terms of creating gas infrastructure, especially in transportation," he said.

As for Moscow's attitude to this process he noted that Russia is now approaching Azerbaijan with respect.

"Azerbaijan has gained a lot of attraction internationally, especially due to the fact that it has managed to balance interests of Türkiye and Russia in the region. So I don't think that this will alienate Russia towards Azerbaijan. I think Russia also understands the importance of Azerbaijan and its stable relationship with this country in this region. I think it's one of the key relationships in the Southern Caucasus for Russia and to maintain this relationship, they will go into an extensive lens," the expert said.

The expert drew attention to COP29, which will be held in Baku in November, and said that Azerbaijan can play a role not only in Europe's energy security, but also in the green transition of the West and its neighboring countries by offering a large supply of gas:

"We talk about gas a lot. But gas is also considered to be a green source of energy. So even though it's not, I mean, technically, it's still hard. But it doesn't matter. It's better than burning coal. So I think Azerbaijan, as we already stated, not only can play a role in energy security of Europe, but also in green transition of the West and its neighboring countries by offering a lot of gas supplies. Azerbaijan is not only about gas. And you are showing it to the world right now that really, the country has gone a significant transformation over the past 30 years. It has developed significantly. It has left a lot of people out of poverty. It's already a middle-income country. And this is where the attention that comes with COP can be very beneficial for you and for the world, too, because they can see that also small countries like Azerbaijan or Slovakia can write their own success stories," he concluded.