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Minister of State Pieper to visit Azerbaijan
Cornelia Pieper, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, will travel to Azerbaijan on 12 November 2012. She will use her visit to open the German-Azerbaijani Chamber of Commerce Abroad alongside Director-General Karl-Ernst Brauner of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Dr Volker Treier of the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce and Azerbaijan’s Minister of Economic Development, Shahin Mustafayev.
Minister of State Pieper will also hold meetings with Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Abulfaz Garayev. She will furthermore engage in dialogue with representatives of Azerbaijani civil society.
The Minister of State issued the following statement in anticipation of her visit today (9 November):
The Baku Chamber of Commerce Abroad is only the second – after the one in Moscow – that Germany has opened in the CIS area. Germany’s decision to establish it is a response to the impressively dynamic way in which Azerbaijan has transformed itself into the region’s powerhouse within the space of a few years. At a political level, we are maintaining an intensive and frank conversation on a broad range of issues. Germany sees Azerbaijan as an important partner in a region which continues to face major geopolitical challenges. Participants and issues from civil society are included in that dialogue.