Ca’ Foscari hosts an international conference dedicated to interconnectivity in Eurasia with a focus on Azerbaijan

On April 8 an international conference entitled “Monitoring Central Asia and the Caspian Area: Development Policies, Regional Trends and Italian Interests” was hosted by Ca’ Foscari.

The aim of the conference was to assess the current political and economic trends in the Central Asia and Caspian area as well as to discuss the Italian interests at play in the region. It also intended to contribute  to enhanced academic cooperation, business interaction and mutual understanding between Italy and its Azerbaijani interlocutors. The conference began with welcome speeches given by representatives of Ca’ Foscari, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the embassies of the most important regional state partners. The event then proceeded with two sessions. The first dealt with the most significant national and regional trends that characterize the area, and the second focused on the challenges and opportunities for Italian finance and business sectors in the Eurasian region. The conference devoted particular attention to Azerbaijan, as an important physical – and political – point of contact between Europe and Central Asia.

After the welcome address by Ruslan Rzayev, the representative of the economic desk of the Embassy of Azerbaijan in Italy, Prof. Carlo Frappi, a researcher at Ca’ Foscari, gave a talk focused on the role of Azerbaijan in the development of a multi-directional communication network, while Stefano Bonaldo from the North Adriatic Sea Port Authority focused his lecture on the new possibilities of developing waterways connecting the Caspian, Black and Adriatic seas.