Details added (first version posted on 13:48)
Baku, Azerbaijan, March 29
Trend:
Today, the Iranian-Azerbaijani relations are of great importance not only for the two countries, but also for the region and the world, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said March 29 addressing the Azerbaijan-Iran business forum in Baku, held with participation of Iran's President Hassan Rouhani.
“Dear President Hassan Rouhani, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen. President Rouhani is finishing the official visit to Azerbaijan. We can say with full confidence that the visit was very successful and had excellent results."
"The Iran-Azerbaijan ties of friendship and brotherhood are at the highest level today. The talks, discussions held yesterday once again confirm this. We cooperate very actively in political, economic and all other spheres. We regularly hold meetings with President Rouhani. We held 11 meetings over the past four years. This figure itself shows how closely we cooperate and what kind of mutual trust exists between us. And this is natural, because our peoples have lived and created together for centuries,” the head of Azerbaijani state said.
“The common history and culture that unite us are the main factors for our current ties. We are very pleased today with the rapid development of these ties. With such a high level of political ties, we, of course, can implement any economic and transport projects, and we do it. We personally control all the instructions. I am glad that the members of the intergovernmental commission, all the officials who carry out these instructions, honorably fulfill their official duties. Today, the Iran-Azerbaijan relations are of great importance not only for the two countries, but also for the region and, I can say, for the world, because the projects implemented at our initiative are of great importance for the entire region, the Eurasian continent,” President Aliyev noted.
He said a broad exchange of views on development of trade relations was held recently.
“We think the current level of trade relations does not reflect the level of our ties. Therefore, my recommendation to businessmen participating in this business forum is that we must cooperate even more closely. Practical steps should be taken in order to increase the trade turnover. I hope our mutual export will also increase in the coming years. There are opportunities to achieve this,” added the president.
The head of state noted that, undoubtedly, great attention is paid to issues of mutual investment.
“Today, this small presentation showed two important projects on mutual investments - the joint venture of Iran Khodro and an Azerbaijani company in Neftchala, and the cargo terminal created in Iran thanks to the Azerbaijani investments. Of course, first of all, there must be excellent relations and mutual interests for putting joint investments. They exist and strengthen day by day. On the example of these two projects, we see that mutual interests are fully ensured here. I am confident that the future activity of the automobile plant will be successful and the cargo terminal will play an important role in the development of the North-South transport corridor. I think we also should seriously think about putting joint investments in other spheres, and we do this,” President Aliyev said.
The head of state noted that these issues were discussed on the eve and during the narrow format meeting and at a meeting held with participation of the two countries’ delegations.
“Additional directions for joint investments are identified. I can say with full confidence that the North-South transport corridor is being implemented thanks to very serious efforts of the Iranian and Azerbaijani sides. We constantly discuss these issues with neighboring countries. The work carried out over the past two years has created the main ground for the opening of this route. During a small presentation it was shown that in 2016-2017, the missing part of this railway was built in Azerbaijan, a bridge was built across the Astarachay River,” the Azerbaijani president said.
“The first test train ran from Azerbaijan to Iran during my visit to Iran last year. The cargo terminal is already under construction today and a historic document was signed yesterday. An agreement was signed in connection with the construction of the Astara-Rasht railway. The agreement will play a special role in the implementation of the North-South transport corridor. Thus, connecting the continents, we will get an economic profit, because transit cargo passing through our territory will amount to tens of millions of tons."
"At the same time, we are creating a new format of cooperation in the region. We have already created it, because we are actively cooperating today not only in bilateral format, but also in trilateral and quadrilateral formats,” the Azerbaijani president added.