BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr. 13
Trend:
Italy is a very close friend and partner for us, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said during his speech at the ‘New Vision for South Caucasus: Post-Conflict Development and Cooperation’ conference at ADA University in Baku on April 13, 2021, Trend reports..
"I still remember my state visit to Italy last February. As you know, before that President of Italy Mr. Mattarella paid a state visit to Azerbaijan and my visit was a continuation of our strategic dialogue. We signed a document on strategic partnership. By the way, it was the second. We signed one, it was signed several years ago. So, this really demonstrates our mutual commitment. And also, as you correctly mentioned we are very grateful to Italy for their straightforward, just approach with respect to the resolution of the conflict, which we know that was not easy to articulate, especially in the European Union family, where there are very strong, powerful Armenian supporters who always tried to put on the same scale the victim of occupation and the occupational forces. So, that was really very important sign of cooperation,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he responded to question.
“Our political relations are excellent. We continue strong cooperation and this cooperation was already tested during the conflict and in post war period. From the very first days of our plans for reconstruction we invited Italian companies. We invited them through Italian Embassy. Italian companies implemented big projects here, in petrochemicals, refinery, construction, and architectural projects. They already started and we want the presence of Italian companies. As I said, after war we will invite the companies from friendly countries,” the head of state said.