Minister Konrad Mizzi signing the Memorandum of Understanding with his Azeri counterpart Natig Aliyev
Today, the Ministry for Energy of Azerbaijan and the Ministry for Energy and Health of Malta signed a Memorandum of Understanding on strategic cooperation within the oil and gas sector. The main areas of the strategic cooperation will focus on oil and gas exploration, sourcing and logistics of petroleum products, trading in energy commodities in the Mediterranean region, development of new regional infrastructure, and innovative LNG services.
It is rather disturbing that the actual Maltese government is seeking business relations with countries having poor track on human rights like Azerbaijan or China. Human Rights Watch published following report on the actual Human Rights situation in Azerbaijan:
“The Azerbaijani government’s poor record on freedom of expression, assembly, and association dramatically deteriorated during this year. The authorities arrested dozens of political activists on bogus charges, imprisoned critical journalists, broke up several peaceful public demonstrations, and adopted legislation that further restricted fundamental freedoms. This crackdown was the backdrop for the October 2013 presidential election, in which incumbent President Ilham Aliyev was re-elected for a third term with 84.5 percent of the vote.
The government continued its urban renewal campaign in the capital Baku, forcibly evicting hundreds of families without adequate compensation. Torture and ill-treatment persists with impunity.
Azerbaijan’s international partners failed to fully realize the potential of their relationships with the government to press for rights improvements.”
The full report can be read here.
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