Energy Minister Virgil Popescu wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday that he was in Baku to negotiate “concrete collaborations” in the energy field with Azerbaijani officials.

“These days I am in Baku, in the Republic of Azerbaijan, to have a series of meetings with Azerbaijani officials, to negotiate concrete collaborations in the field of energy,” Popescu said.

“Today I had a working meeting with Minister Sahil Babayev, chairman of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission for Trade-Economic and Technical-Scientific Cooperation – Romania – Republic of Azerbaijan. As chairman of this commission, on behalf of Romania, we proposed to revive the activity of this commission given the predominant energy component in the bilateral dialogue,” the minister added, according to Agerpres.

The next session of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission will take place this year in Baku.

“At the same time, I proposed to revive the activity of the Energy Working Group Romania – Republic of Azerbaijan, updating its composition and with the possibility of organizing a new session in the near future. Discussions in the Energy Working Group have the potential to contribute to the implementation of the energy cooperation proposals advanced by Romania, the direct dialogue with the partners in Azerbaijan may allow the identification of new directions of cooperation in the energy sector,” the government official added.

Romania plans to import gas from Azerbaijan through the Southern Corridor, to reduce dependence on Russian gas.