Details added, (first version posted on 16:03)
Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 8
Trend:
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Baku Aug. 8.
The presidents made speeches during the meeting.
Welcoming Putin and other guests, President Aliyev said this is the third visit of Russian president to Azerbaijan in the last three years and this itself shows the high level of relations between the two countries.
“I also often visit Russia. We have recently met in St. Petersburg in June. Frequent meetings naturally give a new momentum to development of our relations which have long ago reached the strategic partnership level and cover almost all spheres of our life,” said the president.
“We actively cooperate on international platforms. The political dialogue, the economic relations are strengthening. There are good results in the transportation and energy spheres and the humanitarian cooperation is developing,” added Azerbaijan’s president.
President Aliyev pointed out that in September, Baku will host the next humanitarian forum, which is held under the auspices of Russia and Azerbaijan.
“All this creates new preconditions for the development of our relations,” he added.
President Aliyev also pointed to Russia’s role in the process of settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“We value this role. Your personal participation plays an important role in making progress in the settlement process,” President Aliyev said addressing his Russian counterpart.
“The meeting in St. Petersburg in June was primarily dedicated to this issue and I express my gratitude to you for your personal active participation in this process,” added President Aliyev.
The president reminded that the first trilateral meeting with his Iranian and Russian counterparts will be held today in Baku.
“This is a new format. It is a promising format and has potential within the bilateral cooperation,” he added. “Important issues of the regional cooperation will be discussed today. I believe that this will contribute both to the economic development of our countries and strengthening the security system in our region.”
President Aliyev once again welcomed his Russian counterpart.
Putin, in turn, thanked President Aliyev for the invitation.
“I would like to fully agree with the characteristics you gave to our relations,” said Russia’s president, adding that the relations between the two countries have really reached the strategic partnership level not on paper, but in practice.
“It is very important that our relations are quite diversified and are developing in all spheres,” he said.
He pointed out that almost 600 Russian companies operate in Azerbaijan and the volume of direct investments stands at $1.4 billion.
However, as Putin said, the trade turnover between the two countries has decreased in monetary terms due to a number of reasons such as the crisis in the world economy, the decrease in prices for traditional export goods and the problems related to the exchange rate differences.
“It will be very timely to talk about this, to seek the ways of resolving these issues. In reality, a very good basis has been created,” said Putin. “We have promising good projects not only in the energy sphere, but of course in other areas, such as mechanical engineering and high technologies. I believe this is very important.”
He pointed out that Azerbaijan and Russia continue to cooperate on the Caspian Sea and in the military sphere.
“Thank you very much for organizing meetings in the trilateral format. This is also your initiative and we really have something to discuss in this format. There are and can be new projects on the Caspian Sea in a wider aspect, such as transportation, energy, and diversification of our trilateral trade and economic relations,” said Russia’s president.
“You mentioned Karabakh. This is really a problem that we got from our Soviet past. I know how acute this issue is for both Azerbaijan and Armenia,” Putin said.
“We will do everything possible so that Armenia and Azerbaijan reach a compromise acceptable for both sides, so that the two countries’ peoples win from this, and so that both countries feel that they have resolved this difficult issue in the interests of current and future generations,” he noted.
Russia’s president once again thanked President Aliyev for the invitation.
“I am confident that our joint work today will be positive, fruitful, and will create conditions for further development of bilateral relations and improvement of the situation in the region,” he added.