YEREVAN. – Azerbaijan seems to be mainly interested in the bilateral dimensions of the Eastern Partnership with a clear focus on an energy corridor with Europe and access to the energy markets there, political analyst Gunter Walzenbach told Armenian News – NEWS.am.

“After Russia has been pushing increasingly for its own economic integration project Vilnius summit needs to present a robust response by the EU. This most likely will lead to and include a further differentiation of the EaP and respective association agreements”, noted Walzenbach , who is a senior lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol.

He emphasized that Azerbaijan has repeated its interest in the “integration into Euro-Atlantic structures”, in particular since the Economic community project of Russia is not very appealing to them.

“Their economy has been benefiting from energy exports and they feel little temptation to compromise on their sovereignty as to the terms of energy deals with the West. Apart from the focus on energy deals other areas of the EaP seem underdeveloped at this stage”, he mentioned, adding that an Association Agreement as implied by its name would have to come up with more, for example, as regards visa regimes and regional development.

The expert believes there are continuing disagreements between Azerbaijan and the EU as to the latter’s ambition to promote democracy in that country.

 “Both the EU High Representative on foreign policy Catherine Ashton and the European Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule have expressed their concern about the presidential elections in Azerbaijan recognizing ‘significant problems.’ At the same time they have expressed their willingness to support Azerbaijan when implementing international commitments”, Walzenbach emphasized.