BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 2. Italy is our main trading partner, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said receiving a delegation led by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Italian Republic Luigi Di Maio, Trend reports.
"The number of issues on the agenda is really growing. This is a very good sign of our cooperation. Of course, the strong political ties between our countries formed a strong foundation of our partnership. In 2014 and 2020, we signed two important declarations on strategic partnership. This shows that there is a mutual interest to be close friends, and we are already close friends. Of course, I have very good memories of my visit to Italy two years ago and President Mattarella's visit to Azerbaijan in 2018. Visits, discussions and documents – all this shows that there are strong ties between our countries. As you may know, I recently had a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and we also discussed your visit to Azerbaijan," Azerbaijani president said.
"So everything is going well and, of course, I am pleased to see good indicators of our trade partnership. I looked at the information and saw that Azerbaijan is Italy's key trading partner in the South Caucasus, as 95 percent of Italy's trade with the South Caucasus is with Azerbaijan. The numbers are very good, almost $10 billion last year. I am confident that this figure will increase this year due to additional gas supplies to Italy. Of course, the fact that Italy is our main trading partner is a very good sign. There are new opportunities in energy cooperation. For many years, Azerbaijan has been a reliable source of oil and the number one source of oil supply to Italy. Now with the completion of the Southern Gas Corridor project, we have become an important gas supplier and are the third largest supplier of gas. If there is potential to move forward, of course, we will. I was also very pleased with the fact that last year we supplied 7 billion cubic meters of gas, and this year it will be even more," the head of state said.