Azerbaijan's rapprochement with the EU is one of the priorities of Baku's foreign policy, expert Fikrat Sadigov told Report.
"Azerbaijan was moving towards this agreement consistently, step by step. Almost all the points of the new agreement- 90%, as far as I know - have been agreed and signed. Some 10 percent is left. Probably, it includes energy issues, problems of democratic development, issues related primarily to the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, which is very important for our country," Sadigov said and added that the agreement will eventually be signed taking into account the interests of the parties.
In his opinion, this agreement is primarily interesting for Azerbaijan in terms of further European integration.
“For Europe, Azerbaijan is a very important player that will ensure energy security, strive to develop comprehensive relations in various spheres - economic, political, humanitarian. I think that following the signing of the agreement, this process will be further deepened and the development will take place systematically and consistently," the expert added.
According to him, in the process of signing the agreement, Baku makes every effort to ensure that the interests of Azerbaijan are taken into account and recorded in this document.
"Our main task is the item on the recognition of territorial integrity, which has long been discussed. I think that it should be necessarily reflected in this agreement so that the document is more complete and meets our interests," Sadigov stressed.
The expert expressed his opinion that we should not expect an immediate solution to a number of problems following the signing of the agreement with the EU.
"This approach is somewhat naive and unreal. Simply there is another moment that our interests will be closer to the EU. We will become closer in terms of economic, energy and humanitarian cooperation, namely joint projects, trips of various groups of the population, expanding the whole learning space, in general all areas to be reflected in this agreement will bring us closer to the EU. Of course, we can become a full-fledged player, for whom the interests of the European Union are as close as Azerbaijan's interests for the EU," he concluded.