BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 24. Following the ceremony of signing documents, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev have made press statements.
First a statement was made by President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
Statement by President Ilham Aliyev: Dear Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich, I warmly welcome you to Azerbaijan again. Welcome to our country! You are paying an official visit to Azerbaijan. This is a manifestation of friendship and brotherhood between our peoples. Detailed negotiations have been held within the framework of the visit on current issues of the bilateral agenda, issues related to regional security and international problems. Many documents have been signed. Some of them were signed with our participation, and more than 20 documents were signed between relevant agencies today. This creates a broader legal framework for our relationship. Of course, of these documents, I would like to specifically mention the Declaration on the strengthening of strategic relations and the deepening of allied relations between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, which we have just signed. The name of this Declaration itself testifies to the importance of the document. We are not only strategic partners, but also allies. Of course, this puts a special responsibility on us, and we are ready for this responsibility. The Declaration covers many aspects of our cooperation and will certainly serve as a very solid basis for our future interaction.
We have identified ways to develop our cooperation in the international arena. We actively interact within the framework of leading international organizations and this, of course, creates new preconditions for multilateral cooperation. In June, the ministers of foreign affairs and transport of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey met in Baku. This is a new format of multilateral cooperation, and this cooperation has great prospects. The Joint Declaration also reflects the possible future development of multilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and the five countries of Central Asia. In my opinion, this is also natural, because the history, traditions and culture of our peoples require closer interaction in all areas.
We have talked in detail about the transport and logistical sectors today and given relevant instructions to members of the government to intensify these relations. Because the Middle Corridor connecting our countries has great prospects. Both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have already put in place a modern infrastructure that enables the transportation of large volumes of cargo. However, we have also identified future directions of cooperation in order to further increase the capacity of the Middle Corridor.
The importance of connecting the Eastern Zangazur region of Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan was also mentioned in the Joint Declaration. This will be a part of the Middle Corridor. I have informed Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich about the work we are doing in liberated territories.
I would like to take this opportunity to once again express my gratitude to the President of Kazakhstan for the initiative to establish the Center for the Development of Children's Creativity in the liberated city of Fuzuli. Today, a presentation of that center was held and we saw again how sincere the attitude of Kazakhstan is to the problem of returning former internally displaced persons, how urgent this problem is for Kazakhstan. Thank you very much for this initiative. This is a manifestation of friendship, brotherhood and solidarity. I am sure that the Center for the Development of Children's Creativity, which will be named after Kurmangazy, the prominent son of the Kazakh people, will also be a center of Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan friendship.
I would like to thank the President of Kazakhstan again for awarding the highest order of Kazakhstan – the “Altyn Kyran” Order, which is translated as the Golden Eagle – to me. I consider this as a sign of respect for the entire Azerbaijani people, a recognition of the efforts I have made and will continue to make for the development of brotherly relations between our countries and peoples.
Today, during our meeting with the President of Kazakhstan, I informed Mr. President in detail about the current state of the process of normalization of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia and reaffirmed Azerbaijan's intention to create long-term and lasting peace in the South Caucasus region. At the same time, I expressed my gratitude for Kazakhstan’s continuous support of Azerbaijan's territorial integrity both during the occupation and after the second Karabakh war within the framework of international institutions. We in Azerbaijan know and appreciate this very much. During our conversations and discussions today, we also touched upon the issue of increasing the turnover of goods. In my opinion, our focus on priority directions of mutual activity within the field of transport and logistics will allow us the opportunity to carry out more export-import transactions. I believe that there is tremendous potential there. I think that the President of Kazakhstan announced the figure we are aiming for – a turnover worth 1 billion dollars. In my opinion, taking into account the intention of both sides to deepen mutual cooperation, this is quite realistic.
Of course, we have also discussed other issues related to information and communication technologies and humanitarian cooperation. In other words, our agenda today is quite broad, and we see that the positions of our countries completely overlap in all directions. This once again shows that Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are strategic partners and allies not only in word but also in deed.
I want to express my gratitude to the President of Kazakhstan for visiting our country and for the attitude we have seen from him and the brotherly Kazakh people. I want to wish Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich the best of luck in all his initiatives on my behalf and on behalf of the entire Azerbaijani people. During the conversation, I also expressed my attitude to the reforms being implemented in Kazakhstan, the reforms aimed at economic development and the steps aimed at strengthening the independence and sovereignty of Kazakhstan. We fully support these reforms in Azerbaijan, but most importantly, they are supported by the people of Kazakhstan. The people see that the President's words and deeds do not contradict each other. They see the results of Kassym-Jomart Kemelevich's activities for the further development of Kazakhstan. As your friends and brothers, we are very happy about this and want to wish the brotherly people of Kazakhstan success, prosperity and peace.
Thank you.
Then a statement was made by President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Statement by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev: Dear Ilham Heydar oglu,
Dear ladies and gentlemen.
First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the invitation to pay an official visit to the wonderful city of Baku. We held fruitful talks on a wide range of issues today. As the President of Azerbaijan correctly noted, we did not find any problems or obstacles. On the contrary, we expressed a mutual desire to step up efforts to achieve concrete results, whether in the economic sphere or on the humanitarian track. I would like to emphasize that, having victoriously restored territorial integrity in accordance with the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, Azerbaijan has entered a new era in its development. And this, of course, has been possible thanks to the great personal contributions of the national leader of Azerbaijan, President of our brotherly country Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev. Taking this opportunity, I would like to once again note that Azerbaijan has achieved tangible results in its development under your strong leadership. We are observing these trends developing in your country and are sincerely happy.
We also see Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur dynamically reviving. Thanks to your personal efforts, these lands will turn into a prosperous region in the near future – there is no doubt about that. Kazakhstan, for its part, is ready to make a contribution to this noble cause. Today, a presentation of our Kazakh gift, a gift of the Kazakh people took place here. I mean that an art school named after Kurmangazy will be built in the city of Fuzuli by the end of next year. The construction of this facility was entrusted to the leading construction company of Kazakhstan, “BI”. The company vowed today that it would meet the declared deadlines and, of course, ensure quality. There is no doubt about that because the company is quite responsible.
It is also symbolic that my visit is taking place on the eve of an anniversary – the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. We will celebrate this date literally in three days. I must say that, in principle, due to my official duties, I was involved in the process of developing cooperation between our countries from the very beginning. And we have come a long way. We started from scratch and today we are justifiably talking about strategic partnership and alliance between our countries. A declaration has been signed on deepening and diversifying this cooperation. This is a real step forward.
A trusting political dialogue has been established between us. Our states cooperate with each other on international platforms, primarily in the United Nations, the OSCE and the Organization of Turkic States. Of course, I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to you, dear Ilham Heydar oglu, for your unwavering support for the Kazakh initiative to convene a Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. In mid-October of this year, a summit will be held in our capital, and we, of course, look forward to your personal participation in this very important forum. Your participation and work in this forum will have a very positive impact in terms of achieving the desired result.
I would also like to note that the volume of mutual trade increased three times last year, i.e. there is a positive momentum, but in absolute terms this result still does not look impressive enough. So an agreement was reached today that the parties would make every effort to build up the absolute figures of mutual trade, so that we could talk about reaching the billion mark in the near future, perhaps in the coming years.
It is gratifying that the cultural and humanitarian agenda is being filled with joint efforts, and this, of course, contributes to even greater closeness between our peoples. Today I put forward an initiative to hold Ten Days of Azerbaijani Culture in our country. I have no doubt about the popularity of this event because our people have been missing the Azerbaijani culture, missing the outstanding figures of your art, and this event – I hope it will take place – is destined to succeed. In addition, we have agreed that there will be exchanges of delegations of cultural figures between our countries. We are grateful that one of the streets in the city of Sumgayit bears the name of the outstanding representative of the Kazakh people, Akhmet Baitursynov. It is noteworthy that Akhmet Baitursynov was a delegate of the First All-Union Turkological Congress in 1926 right here in the city of Baku. I think that this fact shows again that there have always been very close ties between our countries and peoples.
You are probably aware that of the streets of our capital, the city of Nur-Sultan, which was called Astana back then, used to be named after outstanding statesman and great son of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev. However, the city is developing, the capital is developing, and from the position of today, this street does not look so impressive any more, but it still bears the name of Heydar Aliyev. Therefore, I have made a decision and given a corresponding instruction to the governor of the capital so that he proposed to name one of the large streets or one of the avenues of our capital after Heydar Aliyev, a person whom we respect very much and hold in high esteem in our country. So we will give this name to a more suitable place. I believe that this would be quite justified.
Today we spoke in great detail about the development of the transport and logistical sphere of our relations and cooperation between our states. It is possible to say that we talked in great detail and issued corresponding instructions to our governments. There is no doubt that specific results will be achieved in this direction. In any case, there is an absolute interest on the part of Kazakhstan in the development of this type of cooperation.
I would like to highlight the agricultural sector. Here we complement each other. You know that Kazakhstan has the ability to supply grain, wheat and other types of agricultural produce. In turn, we need to import agricultural produce from Azerbaijan, i.e. fruits and vegetables. In general, by and large, a number of Kazakh producers are ready to increase deliveries to Azerbaijan of 100 commodity items for a total amount of more than $300 million. Therefore, we need to ensure the logistics of this trade, and this is the task for the governments of our countries we agreed on today.
Otherwise, I would like to note that I have a very good assessment of the results of my visit. I would like to express my gratitude, first of all, to President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Heydarovich Aliyev and to his government for the very fruitful work towards deepening our cooperation.
As for Kazakhstan, as they say, there will be no obstacles from our side. We will work very productively. We are absolutely right in talking about the strategic nature of relations between our countries. The word “strategic” requires us to do a lot. We need to put a specific meaning and specific content here, and we must work on this. I remain very optimistic about the future of our cooperation. Once again, thank you for your hospitality and for the conditions necessary for our work.
