Azerbaijan Is Rich. Now It Wants to Be Famous.

(…..) Few countries have come as far in mastering the art of geopolitics as Azerbaijan. After being occupied by Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, the Seljuks, Mongols, Persians, the Russians, the Ottomans and, finally, Soviets, Azerbaijan, which achieved its independence in 1991, has cultivated few relationships with US, many European countries, deepened relations with Russia and key Central Asian “stans”. These days, Azerbaijan, which is overwhelmingly Muslim, buys advanced weapons systems from Israel in return for oil. A new member of United Nations Security Council, the country sided with the United States against Russia last year on a resolution condemning Syria. “This is a very small country on a very significant piece of real estate,” says Matthew Bryza, former U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan. “Azerbaijan pursues a very realpolitik policy.” In the old days, they came for geography (Azerbaijan is perched on Caspian). About century ago, they started coming for oil. Then, after Soviet Union collapsed, energy sector became a source of enormous wealth. Now Azerbaijan is trying to take an advantage of that wealth. As such, Avesta’s sales and marketing team recently produced a gleaming 101-page coffee-table book in a gilded box promoting Khazar Islands. It features photographs of men in Italian suits, women with pouty faces; everyone drinks wine and is on a cigarette boat or in a Mercedes convertible. There’s also a video that shows computer renderings of Khazar Islands in not-too-distant future. The video lasts 5 minutes 6 seconds and includes an image of a make-believe skyline at night and another of Ibrahimov on a cellphone in front of a private jet, even though, conceded, he doesn’t own one. 2 things about the video are striking. First, there isn’t any information about asking prices, square footage, move-in dates, why anyone would want to live in Baku. And then there’s the soundtrack, which is a synthesized blast of violins, harps, horns and snare drums that makes you feel as if you’re riding a stallion in the desert in the 1980s. The day before my three-hour flight from Moscow to Baku last spring, Avesta’s sales and marketing director at the time, Kenan Guluzade, flew to the Russian capital to hand-deliver book and DVD to me at a Starbucks. Guluzade said he had to be in Russia anyway, he was also worried that, as a journalist, I might not get into Azerbaijan. Guluzade came with his assistant and his father, who sported an elegant, silk scarf and a tailored jacket. Guluzade spoke quickly, in English. “It’s really nice to feel attention to our construction project,” he said, and then he handed me a fancy shopping bag with the DVD and the book. His father sipped a latte. “The new Baku is stunning,” his father said. Then Guluzade said: “This is true. It’s amazing what is happening.” When I arrived in Baku, first of the Khazar Islands had already been plunked down, and first few apartment buildings were going up. The entrance featured a menacing, falconlike archway. Boulevards and traffic circles had been paved, and there were long strips of palm trees, “Ibrahimov loves palm trees,” Nigar Huseynli, Ibrahimov’s assistant, said, and everywhere there seemed to be mounds of earth and retaining walls and the concrete outlines of future cineplexes and shopping malls. Amrahov Hasrat, who was chief engineer at the Khazar Islands, told me that 200 trucks brought in rocks every day from a bluff eight miles away. “We are destroying the mountain,” Hasrat said, pointing off into the distance in the direction of a hill, “and taking the rocks back to the sea to build the artificial islands” (…..)

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/azerbaijan-is-rich-now-it-wants-to-be-famous.html

Time for EURAFTA? A European Union-American Free Trade Agreement

Miserable as past few years have been for the sluggish global economy, there is a bright side. Hard times have forced the political leaders to cast about for ideas to boost growth, every now and then they come up with a good one. Case in point: the push for a free-trade agreement between the United States and the European Union. On Friday, national leaders of E.U.’s 27 member states expressed “support for a comprehensive trade agreement” with the United States, citing its potential to create jobs in a continent still struggling with high unemployment and debt. To be sure, the transatlantic trade is already massive; according to the Commerce Department, the United States exported $329 billion worth of goods to Europe in 2012, while importing $454 billion. Average tariff on this huge flow of goods, larger than between United States and Canada, Mexico, China, Japan, is an already low 3%. Still, zeroing out tariffs would boost US- European economic output nearly $180 billion within 5 years, evenly divided between the two sides, according to a 2010 U.S. Chamber of Commerce report. Gains would be even larger if the United States and Europe can agree to remove the non-tariff regulatory barriers to trade, such as Europe’s aversion to U.S. agricultural products made from genetically modified organisms. Indeed, once talks begin in earnest, agriculture is likely to be worst sticking point. Industrial rules and regulations are relatively easier to harmonize. U.S. unions and environmentalists, which have objected to past trade agreements with Mexico and Colombia, would seem to have fewer reasons to oppose deal with green, high-wage Europe. Apart from economic benefits, a free trade would strengthen U.S.-European strategic ties. For all their current woes, and despite the rise of China, the United States and Europe still produce more than half of global economic output. It is in their mutual interest to unify standards and regulations so as to jointly shape the flow of trade. For its part, Obama administration has fretted that negotiations could bog down if Europe fails to back its pro-trade words with action, as it is sometimes wont to do. Friday’s E.U. statement comes on top of unequivocal personal public support for free trade by Chancellor Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, and now Europe is wondering when President Obama will send an equally strong signal, so that talks can commence in earnest. Vice President Biden recently declared in Munich the “almost boundless” benefits of free trade are “within our reach.” But many across the Atlantic expect Mr. Obama to put his own prestige on the line for free trade, perhaps by declaring it a major second-term goal in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. We hope so, too. (source: Editorial Board – The Washington Post – 11/02/2013)