Rafał Poborski: Poland and Azerbaijan have strong ties, perfect prospects for future successes

Over the past few years, the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Poland have reached a high level of partnership. Both countries are actively working to strengthen economic and political ties which contributes to mutually beneficial cooperation in various areas.

At the political level, Azerbaijan and Poland collaborate in international organizations and various forums. Baku and Warsaw discuss their positions on key issues helping to more effectively address both regional and global problems.

One of the remarkable events in recent years was the launch of direct flights between Warsaw and Baku in May 2022, which further strengthened the ties between the two countries.

In an interview with Report, the Polish Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Rafał Poborski, who is completing his diplomatic mission in the country, shared the results of his work, spoke about the significant successes achieved during his tenure, as well as the prospects for further cooperation between the countries.

- What impressions are you taking with you upon completion of your diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan? Would you like to come back here again?

- My impressions of Azerbaijan are very positive. I came here more than four years ago, in 2020, and I had a very interesting tenure in Baku because it was full of very important events, both internationally and domestically for Azerbaijan, Poland, our bilateral relations and worldwide.

I was here during the COVID pandemic that affected all of us. I was here during the war and liberation of the territories. I witnessed many very important international gatherings in Baku.

So, I would say that it was a very fruitful and work-intensive time for me. At the same time it was also beneficiary from the professional and personal point of view. I met here a lot of good colleagues, friends from diplomatic corps, and from Azerbaijani institutions of different kinds, not only ministries, but also agencies, museums, local authorities, universities etc. I recall lots of interesting conversations and projects.

But I will remember not only people I met but also places I saw. During these four years I tried to visit as many places in Azerbaijani as I could. In some of them I was many times, like Shaki or Lankaran, Lerik, Laghij, Guba, Gabala, Gakh and others. Me, and my colleagues from the diplomatic corps, had also the opportunity to visit the liberated areas. So, I think I learn a lot about Azerbaijan. Of course, there's probably still a lot of things to be seen, and therefore, I would gladly come back one time to visit those places that I haven't been to.

I would like to note that Azerbaijan is the first posting in my career as an ambassador. This is a privilege and honor but also a hard work. During my last meeting with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, I mentioned that Baku will always be a reference point for me in my future work as an ambassador and diplomat in general.

I am very glad that I had the opportunity to be here, among the Azerbaijani people and fellow diplomats, and that I experienced both good and difficult moments with them.

So, to sum it up, I'm taking from Azerbaijan a lot of very warm feelings, a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge. And I would be surely glad to come back here one day as a tourist.

- Which part of our country did you enjoy most?

- You know, this is a very difficult question because it depends on the season and the weather. I like the south of Azerbaijan very much in spring, in May. When you cross the Kur river, you are entering a different country, full of green, full of very nice landscapes, close to the sea. I like it very much.

But I also like very much the western part of Azerbaijan. Zagatala, Gakh, Gabala, these orchards of different fruits, pomegranates. They look beautiful, especially in the spring, where everything is blossoming or during holidays when they offer refreshing shadow.

So, it is very difficult to pick one place I like most. In winter, I liked very much to spend time in Tufandagh and Shahdagh. I cannot name one because there are lots of places in Azerbaijan I admire.

- Could you provide more details on how bilateral relations between our countries have developed through your diplomatic career? In which areas has our cooperation strengthened during this period? And what prospects do you see for the future development of cooperation between Poland and Azerbaijan?

- First of all, I would like to underline that relations between Poland and Azerbaijan were always very friendly and have a very solid legislative and real base. We cooperate on many aspects on political issues in global organizations like United Nations, OSCE and others. Poland, also as a member of the European Union and NATO, is very active in the South Caucasus region and towards Azerbaijan.

We work hard to increase the volume of our trade, and I'm very glad that after COVID pandemic's disruption, we are able to come back or even to beat the level of trade that we had before.

I'm also very glad that our political relations are so active. We have a regular dialogue on different levels. Last month we organized political consultations of Deputy Foreign Minister. Our Foreign Ministers met recently in London on the margins of the European Political Community gathering. Last year we had a meeting of bilateral Intergovernmental Commission on Economic Cooperation here in Baku. Also a Working Group on Transport from our ministries visited Baku. This is very important, since logistics, transport, multimodal corridors that are linking Asia and Europe through the territories of Azerbaijan and Poland constitute an important part of our relations.

I'm especially proud that during my staying here in Azerbaijan the direct flight connection between Warsaw and Baku was established, and it's now in full swing. It operates very successfully and creates additional opportunities to beef up our bilateral ties.

We noticed active and very good development of people-in-people contacts. More businessmen from Poland come to Azerbaijan in search for partners and opportunities to invest and trade. I consider it an important aspect of my work as an ambassador and a representative of my country.

There are more and more Polish visitors coming to Azerbaijan, but there are also a lot of Azerbaijanis going to Poland to explore beauty of my country.

Many young people from Azerbaijan are studying in Warsaw or other cities in Poland because we offer them high quality education and good safe living standards.

The direct flights made a huge difference and I think it will continue to be an important factor in our bilateral relations.

So, as I said, political, economic, social, cultural exchange is very good, and I do hope that in the future it will develop even further.

- As is known, one of the Polish architectural firms was included in the shortlist for the design and construction of a concert hall in Shusha. Is there any news about it? Are Polish companies interested in participating in other projects in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan?

- As far as this tender is concerned, I don't have a specific information to share. I think that now it is under the consideration of Azerbaijani side.

What I know is that Kuryłowicz & Associates Architects were shortlisted and they are among few international architecture bureaus that presented their offer. And I do hope that Polish proposal will be selected and the project will be implemented. Because if the concert hall in Shusha is built according to Polish architects' design, it will be a repetition of those beautiful XX century designs by Polish architects that we can see here in Baku, like the philharmonics or the puppet theater, but in a new 21st century format. It will have a symbolic meaning for our bilateral relations.

Also for broader region as I know and you know even better that Shusha is a very important cultural center for Azerbaijan and the region. It is also important for the Turkic states as a cultural capital.

Certainly, we are interested in cooperation in entire Azerbaijan, including the regained territories. Polish companies, especially in the construction sector, are interested in the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan.

There are also discussions about the renewable energy projects. Just like many other countries including Azerbaijan, we are undergoing green revolution and Poland is very strong in this field. Green energy is increasing its role in the Polish energy mix. So I think it is also a very important field of cooperation. Already a few companies arrived here in Azerbaijan to present their offer and there are other that would like to invest in this sphere.

- In your speeches, you often highlighted the positive dynamics in the trade turnover between our countries. But you also mentioned that the desired targets have not yet been achieved. How do you think this potential can be fully realized?

- I think the first thing both sides should do is to deliver the message about the perspectives of our markets to the business communities in both Poland and Azerbaijan. We are trying really hard to popularize the possibilities that exist in both countries among business people.

With direct flight connections and increasing number of contacts between people, we have also more institutional dialogue between Polish Investment and Trade Agency and AZPROMO or ministries responsible for economy for example.

My Embassy is also cooperating very closely with KOBIA (the Small and Medium Business Development Agency of Azerbaijan-ed.) and this cooperation already brings results, because our exports to Azerbaijan are increasing every year, and the Azerbaijani exports to Poland are also on rise.

We are not aiming to catch up with volume of trade with the countries that buy oil and gas from Azerbaijan. I'm very glad that our bilateral trade is very diversified, and we do not really rely on one product even so important as oil and gas. Polish-Azerbaijani economic exchange is maybe lower in numbers but more stable and safer.

What is important for the diplomacy is to inform Polish businesspeople, who are thinking about where to sell their products or invest, about Azerbaijan as a place to expand their business. The main task of my Embassy and colleagues working in the Azerbaijani Embassy in Warsaw is to bring people together.

I am sure that they will find good opportunities to cooperate, for example, in IT, startups, financial investments, banking sector. We have some good results and promising projects.

- Actually, I have noticed that there is a lot of Polish products in our market and their number continues to grow.

- It's encouraging that you have noticed it and I believe it's a result of our efforts too. We have a special organization in our country - National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR) - which is responsible for promoting Polish food products to foreign countries. My Embassy organized with KOWR already two or three business trips to Poland for the main Azerbaijani trade chains. Azerbaijani participants were delighted with the quality and price of our food so it’s not surprising that they concluded a number of contracts with Polish food producers. The results you can observe in Azerbaijani shops. I am very happy that, as you noticed, there are more and more Polish products in shops because of their quality and because of good quality-to-price ratio. I think we are competitive here.

And the one issue that we still have is the question of the deliveries and transportation, because a lot of those most effective transport chains were disrupted because the war in Ukraine. And now we have to find an innovative and effective way to deliver goods both ways. But we are working in this direction. As I said, the working group dealing with this issue was in Baku last year. Two years ago, the Port of Gdansk and the Port of Alat signed an MoU on cooperation and a special working group was established. I think this group has already held seven to eight meetings. They are working very hard to establish good transportation corridors. And you can see the results of our and their work in the Azerbaijani market.

- What about using the Middle Corridor to transport goods between Poland and Azerbaijan?

- This is the topic of our ongoing discussion, we are all working on this issue. The Middle Corridor is a very prospective project. I'm glad that we are working on it in different formats.

And I hope that conditions will soon be created to expand the usage of this corridor, because what is important in our bilateral relations is that both Poland and Azerbaijan have a very perfect location to be hubs for transportation. We are located in the center of Europe, we border seven countries, we link Scandinavia and Baltic region, South, East and West of Europe. Azerbaijan is also perfectly located between the two continents. So transportation corridors, including Middle Corridor, are those opportunities that we should together explore and benefit from them.

- As you know, Baku will play the host to the COP 29 climate conference this year. At what level will the Polish delegation be represented at this event?

- We are talking about the highest possible level as we work on the visit of the President of Poland, H.E. Mr. Andrzej Duda with a delegation. Of course a delegation from the Ministry of Climate and Environment with Polish chief negotiator will also be attending as it is the line ministry responsible for green transformation issues that will be discussed during COP 29. Therefore, there will be the highest possible participation from the Polish side in the conference.

We hope that President Duda's visit to Azerbaijan will also be an occasion for holding a bilateral meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

- The Polish embassy has frequently organized cultural events in Baku to strengthen ties in this area. Can Azerbaijani cultural days be organized in Poland and vice versa?

Yes, my colleague the Ambassador of Azerbaijan in Poland Nargiz Gurbanova is a very active ambassador and I know that she organized a lot of cultural events there. I noticed Azerbaijan's diplomatic mission is organizing a lot of concerts, cultural exchange, which is very good because it brings our societies closer.

But cultural exchange is a two-way street and as you've also mentioned we are also trying hard here in Baku, in Azerbaijan, to popularize Polish culture and to build up on the cultural heritage that we have here.

We broaden the knowledge of modern Polish culture, Polish cinematography, music and other topics. Last year for example we attended the astronautical congress in Baku, where we presented an exhibition on the creator of the modern heliocentric model - Nicolaus Copernicus, but also examples of most modern and sophisticated astronomical equipment produced in Poland, like satellites.

Recently, my Embassy facilitated translation in Azerbaijani and English languages and then printed and presented a book about the geologist Witold Zglenicki. This inventor of the underwater oil drilling techniques, who is also called the Polish Nobel, dedicated his life to develop Azerbaijani oil sector at the beginning of the XX century. His groundbreaking achievements are little known in Azerbaijan, and for this reason, the Polish Embassy in Baku organized the translation of a book dedicated to his life and work.

Last year, a Polish dance ‘Peacock feathers’ group presented in Baku and in Mədəniyyət TV — ‘Culture TV’ traditional Polish dances from the Krakow region. They also conducted training sessions for students at ADA University. It was very interesting to observe how teachers, professors, and students practiced Polish folk dances.

There were more events of this kind during my stay in Azerbaijan. For example we organized a workshop for Azerbaijani painters called ‘Poland through the eyes of Azerbaijani artists’ recently. But there were also a guitar duo and jazz trio concerts, lots of exhibitions, film screenings and other events in previous years.

We are very passionate about culture; music and art are good ways to popularize countries and build bridges. We all understand music and painting; no translation is needed here. This applies to all of us, regardless of origin, ethnicity, culture or religion.

In conclusion, I can say that cultural exchange is a very important part of diplomatic work. I'm glad that I was able to participate in many cultural projects of the Polish Embassy in Baku. I hope that in the future, you will be able to participate in even more cultural events organized by the Polish Embassy in Azerbaijan.