The 6th meeting of the bilateral Inter-Parliamentary Commission of the Azerbaijan Parliament and Federal Council of the Russian Federation takes place in Baku on December 18. The Russian Council will be represented at the meeting by the delegation of 16 people, headed by the co-chairperson of the Inter-Parliamentary Commission, Svetlana Orlova. The Azerbaijan delegation is headed by the Vice Speaker of the Parliament, co-chairman of the commission, Valeh Aleskerov.
The participants of the meeting visited the memorial of ex-Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev in the Avenue of Honor as well as Martyr Avenue.
During the meeting, Aleskerov said that the inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries are developing. According to him, Azerbaijan co-operates with Russia mainly in the sphere of economy and transport. Presently near 1,000 Russian companies work in Azerbaijan, and 171 out of them are joint ventures, he said.
Aleskerov said that the trade turnover between the two countries is developing. According to the information for August 2006, the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia amounted to $900 mln. Aleskerov said that Azerbaijan is interested in increase of trade turnover with Russia.
In her turn, Orlova said that the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin gave an order to reach the trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia up to $2 bln. We are working on this. For this purpose, we want to develop the trade relations with Azerbaijan, she said.
Orlova said that 90% of the delimitation of the borders of the two countries has been completed. 2006 was Russian Year in Azerbaijan and therefore, Russian President was in Baku. Russia is ready for the open dialogue with Azerbaijan, she said. According to her, it is planned to create 4 free trade zones in 4 various cities of Russia, which will give an opportunity to expand the trade relations with Azerbaijan.