BAKU, Azerbaijan, December 21. Every time I come to Azerbaijan and every time I visit Baku, I witness great changes, President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said, making a press statement, following the one-on-one meeting with President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev on December 21, Trend reports.
"For someone from Azerbaijan, this may seem rather unusual, but it really is the case. Because people living in a country cannot see how much that country has changed. Every time I come to Baku, I really witness tremendous progress. I would even say that I observe incredible progress. This is why I want to congratulate you, my friend. I want to congratulate the citizens of Azerbaijan on this progress. I am happy for your achievements. Both my delegation and myself are sincere friends of the people of Azerbaijan and Mr. President personally. Why did I start my short speech with these words? Because the rapid development we are seeing in Azerbaijan can be observed only in a handful of places in the modern world. Some might claim that this is because of the oil and gas.
I know countries that have 10 times more oil and gas reserves than Azerbaijan, and their situation is 10 times worse than that of Azerbaijan. This indicates the power of the country's leadership, the foresight of President Aliyev, and his familiarity with the challenges facing Azerbaijan and the modern world. It goes on to show how you can make a difference with a country's leadership that has a good vision. Again, I want to share a short story with you. During a visit to Libya in 1971-1972, the elderly Sheikh Bin Zayed from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) said that he was hoping that his country could be like Libya in 40 years. Libya has five times more oil than the UAE. But look at the situation of one country and then at the situation of the other. I am sure that President Aliyev has been able to demonstrate the difference between himself and many of us and indeed countries with a larger volume of natural resources and raw materials than Azerbaijan. We are witnessing a situation when a country is led with love, as is the case with President Aliyev. I am not saying this because we need gas and electricity as much as Europe. No, we need less. We do need these resources but we can live without them. I say this because I sincerely sympathize with President Aliyev and the results of his work. When he visited Belgrade, he told me he could hardly recognize some parts of the city. Then I realized that when you visit a place you don't live in, you can witness the development of that country or city," Vucic said.