Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had a meeting

President Ilham Aliyev met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who arrived on a visit to Baku to attend the Summit of Heads of State of Caspian Countries.

President Ilham Aliyev welcomed President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev greeted the Russian President:

- I am delighted to see you in Azerbaijan again. Thank you for accepting our invitation. During your last visit to Baku, we have agreed upon organizing the Summit of Caspian littoral States until the end of the year. I am very pleased that we carried this out and I hope the results of today’s discussions will be fruitful. This is a great opportunity to review the agenda of our relations, to think about what else should be done and what needs to be completed. Our meetings have been regular. This is the third time we are meeting in the last three months. That is why, of course, we had an opportunity to discuss everything in detail. However, in any case, life does not stop in one place, it moves forward. That is why this meeting makes me content.

Our bilateral relations are great, reciprocal political ties are on a high level, we are eliminating the difficulties of the post-crisis period in the economy. Regarding the regional problems, I would like to use this opportunity to thank you again for your active participation in the negotiation process for regulation of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. You initiative on conduct of meetings and your personal participation play a very important and positive role. I hope that we will achieve improvements in this process and will manage to ensure peace and security in our region. This will only be possible if the conflict is resolved based on the norms and principles of international law, and the decisions and resolutions of international organizations. This idea is well reflected in the Meindorf declaration.

I welcome you again and hope that active ties between our countries will continue henceforward.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev expressed his gratitude:

- Dear Ilham Heydarovych, I am also delighted to have met you again. Thank you for inviting me to Azerbaijan and for participation at the Summit. Indeed, this idea engendered recently during my last visit to Azerbaijan. It is great that our colleagues have agreed to this and we will meet together to discuss the mutual problems of the Caspian.

Regarding our bilateral relations, you have expressed everything lucidly and I have nothing to add. Our relations develop successfully, be they on the highest level, between our governments and social structures of our countries, or via business unions. By and large, there is no need to invent anything here – all we need to do is to develop these relations constantly, and perhaps, intensify the business relations. What I mean is that our countries have already passed through the crisis period while still developing. At the same time, the things that happened last year most probably affect the bilateral commodity turnover. I have realized this line of ours has weakened a little bit and we should surely do everything to re-boost these ties.

Other issues – regarding mutual activities over not only Caspian, but also regional issues, we are of course ready to mobilize all the necessary efforts for ensuring regional security hereafter. Russia will continue to support the development process of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia for regulation of the Nagorno-Karabakh problem. Certain measures have been taken recently in this direction. I agree with You that the resolution of this conflict is on the level of international law and relevant work is being carried out in every direction. We are ready to show our support to this process as we did up until now.

Thank you once again for invitation.