BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 18
Trend:
SOCAR will expand its activities in Ukraine and take specific steps, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said as he was making press statements together with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Dec. 17, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Presidential press service.
Along with an increase in turnover, joint investment projects are of great interest, the Azerbaijani president noted.
“We had a wide exchange of opinions about this,” Ilham Aliyev said. “There are specific proposals regarding both Ukraine’s investments in Azerbaijan and Azerbaijan’s investments in Ukraine. I believe that these proposals may be implemented. Joint investment projects in many areas will further strengthen our cooperation.”
“Energy cooperation has been discussed as well,” the Azerbaijani president added. “SOCAR has been operating in Ukraine for many years, has more than 60 gas stations and four oil terminals. Discussing this issue again today, we agreed that SOCAR would expand its activities in Ukraine and take specific steps.”
In previous years, cooperation was carried out in the agricultural sector, Ilham Aliyev noted.
“We have purchased more than 400 units of agricultural machinery in Ukraine and want to continue this cooperation,” the Azerbaijani president said. “Another important issue, and we spent a lot of time on this issue today, is the development of tourism. Both Azerbaijan and Ukraine have ample tourist opportunities. Cooperation, exchange of experience and joint projects in this area have been discussed, a broad exchange of views has taken place and specific instructions have been given.”
Both Ukraine and Azerbaijan have modern transport logistics and infrastructure, Ilham Aliyev added.
“The Caspian and Black Sea transport corridors operate with the participation of our countries,” the Azerbaijani president said. “I informed the President that very large investments had been made in this sector in Azerbaijan in recent years. The East-West and North-South transport corridors passing through the territory of Azerbaijan are already contributing to international cooperation and ushering opportunities for cooperation. Therefore, the East-West transport corridor, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Viking project, implemented in this area – all these projects will further strengthen our countries and, in a broader sense, regional cooperation. They will benefit our countries.”
“Of course, we have also paid attention to humanitarian cooperation,” Ilham Aliyev noted. “Azerbaijan has great respect for Ukrainian culture. The Ukrainian language is being studied. Baku Slavic University has a Ukrainian center. At the same time, a fairly large place is allocated in higher educational institutions of Ukraine to the history and literature of Azerbaijan. Naturally, humanitarian cooperation has a positive effect on overall cooperation.”
“Of course, in this statement for the media we cannot list all the issues discussed because it will take a long time,” the Azerbaijani president added. “But I can say that although the visit is still ongoing, it can already be assessed as very successful in general. I am sure that it will open a new page in the development of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani relations. We discussed specific issues and gave specific instructions. I hope that these instructions will be successfully implemented by relevant bodies.”