Germany and Azerbaijan enjoy broad and multilateral relations, a constructive political dialogue and strong economic ties. Germany's newly appointed Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Ralf Horlemann, upon taking up his duties, immediately announced plans to raise these relations to a new level and outlined the main areas where Germany's experience and capabilities could be useful for Azerbaijan, which is Germany's key economic partner in the region.
Report presents an interview with German Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ralf Horlemann, who submitted his credentials to President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on August 16.
-The cooperation between Azerbaijan and Germany has strong roots, with great history. However, as a new ambassador which sectors would you identify as the main aspects of cooperation with Azerbaijan and to the development of which ones you will pay the most attention to?
-This year, Germany and Azerbaijan are celebrating 30 years of diplomatic relations. The relations over the last 3 decades have developed very dynamically and positively. And there are lots of opportunities for deepening them in the future.
I see it as my main task to foster and deepen the bilateral relationship, especially to strengthen the political, economic, and cultural ties between our two countries and the people living there. In addition, I see big potential in our economic and trade relations, mainly in the three sectors: energy, infrastructure and logistics, and machine buildings.
Since Russia launched its war against Ukraine and started to use energy as a weapon, Europe had to reorient and diversify its energy imports. In that respect Azerbaijan has already started to play an important role. Since 2020, Azerbaijan has been exporting gas to the European market through the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC). There’s a huge potential to increase these exports. In this respect, a memorandum of understanding between the European Union (EU) and Azerbaijan has been signed. We hope that Azerbaijan can increase its energy exports in the coming years, not only in the field of oil and gas but also regarding renewable energy sources. This is important not only from the German point of view but also generally speaking for Europe as a whole because Europe has started to decarbonize its economy and that means we need to produce and to import more green energy supplies like green hydrogen or green electricity - electricity produced on the basis of solar and wind energy for example and then exported to Europe.
The second field that I have mentioned is logistics and infrastructure. After Russia started its war against Ukraine, we have seen the shifting of trade and investment flows to the South and that brings the Middle corridor into play. We see a huge demand in investments in infrastructure and logistics in order to cope with the growing trade, and German companies have a lot to offer in this sector.
The third one is the classical sector of German industry products, machinery, cars and all kind of engineering products, which many small and medium sized companies from Germany are very good at.They are always looking for new opportunities. If there are project tenders in Azerbaijan – German companies will be there.
- Can we expect any new projects between two countries? In which sectors and areas?
Recently „Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation" OJSC and the German "Achenbach Buschhütten" company signed an agreement to establish a joint venture for the production of aluminum products in Ganja – making use of renewable energy sources. German companies are also looking into the use of green hydrogen in order to reduce the CO2 emissions after 2030. And if there were CO2 free Azerbaijani green products such as aluminum that would of course be in high demand on the European market.
Regarding infrastructure and logistics the Middle corridor and Karabakh offer potentially very interesting opportunities for German companies to sell, to export or invest in. Regarding Karabakh Germany has a lot of experience in reconstruction. We have had our reunification 32 years ago and the reconstruction was a huge task, so we understand very well the magnitude of the task that lies ahead of Azerbaijan to reconstruct Karabakh. German companies could potentially play a big and useful role in the reconstructing, the infrastructure, smart cities, sustainable concepts for the development and again the renewable energies.
- Which steps will you take in order to increase the interest of German companies in participation in the restoration works in the liberated areas of Azerbaijan? Are you planning to visit them yourself? When?
- Yes, in fact I had already planned twice to visit Shusha but could not go for various reasons. I am still planning to go there, I don’t know the approximate date yet. I will visit Agdam in the next week for a conference. I would like to see as much as possible of the situation on the ground in order to better understand where are the opportunities for German companies to invest and where might be potential challenges.
We in Germany are of course hoping that the peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be concluded as soon as possible. Together with the European Union we have called for an end of hostilities that broke out two weeks ago. We feel that peace is what the region needs most at this moment, because it is also the precondition for foreign investments. The reconstruction of this area will only be possible if there’s a peaceful and stable environment.
- As reported, Germany can assist Azerbaijan's transition to renewable energy sources. How would that be done?
-There’s a huge potential to tap renewable energy sources in Azerbaijan and the country is just starting to ramp up its engagement in this sector. Germany has a huge and very long experience in the production and the use of the renewable energy sources. At the moment, the first half of this year about 50% of Germany’s electricity was coming from renewable energy sources. There’s a great interest of the German government to increase that even further. There are numerous German companies specialized in the field of renewable energy production and environmental protection which could provide Azerbaijan with their expertise especially in the fields of wind, solar energy and green hydrogen. If there are public projects and tenders then German companies will look at the opportunities. And, of course, if the oppportunities are good, the companies will invest.
-Since 1990 Germany is celebrating its national Day of German Unity. What can you say was the best achievements of this country during this period?
- We are celebrating the Day of German Unity because it is of utmost importance that we have gained our unity. „Unity, and justice and freedom“ is how the German national anthem starts. We were very fortunate to achieve this unity,to develop and reconstruct east Germany over the last 32 years, and to do so peacefully maintaining and developing good relations with our neighbouring countries. There have been a lot of challenges of course, economic as well as social challenges. In the economy we had to change from the planned economy to market economy. In the social field there were of course big challenges for the people in the Eastern part of Germany who gained freedom overnight while many people there lost their jobs over night as well. There was a lot of work to do which Azerbaijan is now also facing in the case of Karabakh. This is a generational task. Looking back, I have to say that we have been very successful at developing equal conditions of living throughout Germany. We are quite content but we also have realized that this process is not finished yet as some challenges remain but that lies in the nature of generational task like this one.