Presidents of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria met in expanded format

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Bulgaria Rumen Radev have held an expanded meeting joined by their delegations.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

- Dear Mr. President,

Dear guests,

Once again I would like to welcome you in Azerbaijan. I am very glad that you came to visit our country. We had a brief meeting at the session of the UN General Assembly in New York. I am grateful to you for accepting the invitation and visiting Azerbaijan. This is your first visit to our country. I am sure that the visit will be very successful.

We have already held an exchange of views on the development of our partnership today. I am sure that the ideas we shared will lead to a greater cooperation between our countries. We are satisfied with the level of political and economic cooperation. However, I am sure that our potential in the economic field exceeds the existing potential. Apart from having such good political relations, we should pay attention to other areas like trade, investment and others. As a result, our partnership will be even more expanded and diversified.

Bulgaria is a very close partner and a friendly country for us. At the same time, we are very actively cooperating within international organizations. Your visit once more shows that we are close friends and our cooperation will successfully continue.

I wish you a pleasant journey in Azerbaijan. Once again welcome to our country.

President of Bulgaria Rumen Radev said:

-Mr. President, first of all, let me thank you on behalf of my delegation for the invitation and the opportunity to visit your beautiful country.

We are very happy to be here for holding discussions and continuing the dialogue between the leadership of our countries. We think that the intensity of political dialogue demonstrates that our peoples and countries enjoy very good relations. As you already noted, the level of political dialogue is creating a very good opportunity for developing cooperation in many other areas. We have just discussed economic and energy cooperation, their opportunities and potential. We support the Southern Gas Corridor. Azerbaijan is playing a key role in ensuring diversification opportunities in Eastern and Central Europe. That is why, we give our support to that project. There is also a great potential for cargo transportation, creation of a transport corridor. We have also discussed direct flights between Baku and Sofia, which is important to our countries. If we open this flight, we will contribute to the development of all other areas.