Ilham Aliyev and Chairman of the Russian government met in an expanded format

Following the meeting in a limited format, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Chairman of the government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev had an expanded meeting with the participation of the delegations.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

Dear Dmitry Anatolyevich, dear guests. Once again I heartily greet you.

We attach great importance to your visit. I am sure that it will contribute to strengthening strategic partnership between Russia and Azerbaijan. In a separate conversation earlier today we mainly discussed with you the problem of settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Once again I would like to express gratitude to the Russian Federation for active mediation efforts towards de-escalation of the situation. Now we will probably talk about other aspects of our interaction.

We have very good dynamics in many areas. Although the trade turnover has a little bit fallen because of objective reasons, there is a potential for increase and cooperation in trade, economic, energy and transport areas. They have a very huge potential. Also our traditional cooperation in humanitarian area certainly has very good prospects and results. I would say that this is the foundation of our relations. That is why I hope that we will discuss with our counterparts concrete issues of trade, economic, and, of course, political relations.

Once again welcome.

Х Х Х

Chairman of the Russian government Dmitry Medvedev said:

Dear Ilham Heydarovich, thank you very much.

We indeed have talked about the most complicated problem and touched upon other inter-regional issues. However, thanks God, our relations, our ties are not confined to the problems as there is a huge layer of relations where we have a very advanced cooperation, real strategic partnership. There is a potential to make additional efforts so that our economies work in a more synchronized manner and yield good results. Last year, trade turnover indeed decreased. Although it’s literally a few percent as the decline has mainly occurred because of the pricing indicators caused by the change of exchange of goods which we supply to each other, prices for goods that we supply. However, this means that an array of projects should be revitalized. So now let’s talk about this as well as humanitarian issues.