WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC), in partnership with the USAID Mission to Azerbaijan, held a joint web conference hosting Azerbaijan’s minister of agriculture Mr. Inam Karimov and Oklahoma Agriculture Secretary Mrs. Blayne Arthur. The meeting was joined by Lee Litzenberger, U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Elin Suleymanov, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States, and Dr. Jaidev Singh, USAID Mission Director for Azerbaijan.
USACC Board Chairman Mr. Reza Vaziri opened the meeting by affirming the Chamber’s full support to further facilitate the partnership between Azerbaijan and the State of Oklahoma.
Minister Karimov and Secretary Arthur discussed agricultural solutions surrounding ramifications of the current global pandemic impacting the agricultural sector. Minister Karimov noted key preemptive measures taken by the Government of Azerbaijan, which have allowed agriculture to be less affected than other fields of the economy. Secretary Arthur informed the minister about technologies Oklahoma has been using to keep the State’s agricultural supply chain strong and lessen the impact of the pandemic. She then reiterated the commitment of Oklahoma State and Oklahoma State University to build upon the success of the inaugural Oklahoma-Azerbaijan Agriculture Forum held last year, in Oklahoma.
Minister and Secretary agreed upon maintaining current lines of communication, especially during the challenging pandemic time. They expressed their readiness to support the strengthening of bilateral ties and commitment to increasing agricultural and educational linkages. Both Ambassador Litzenberger and Ambassador Suleymanov stated their continued commitment to supporting these state partnership initiatives, including an official partnership document signed last year between Azerbaijan State Agrarian University and Oklahoma State University, within the framework of the Oklahoma-Azerbaijan Agriculture Forum.
Last year, USACC, USAID/Azerbaijan, Oklahoma Department of Commerce and Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry co-organized the first-ever bilateral agriculture forum in Oklahoma City. The three-day program brought together more than 100 experts, private sector executives/representatives, agribusiness manufacturers, as well as government agricultural authorities from the state of Oklahoma and Azerbaijan. A delegation of 18 Azerbaijani companies and organizations, a total of 24 mission members, led by Azerbaijan’s Minister of Agriculture, H.E. Inam Karimov, traveled to Oklahoma.
Meeting between the agriculture authorities of Azerbaijan and Oklahoma was hosted within the USAID-USACC partnership document signed in April 2019.
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Source: USACC
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