On October 8, Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held a meeting with Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, in Moscow.
Welcoming the President of Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin said:
- Dear Ilham Heydarovich!
Dear friends, colleagues!
We are very pleased to welcome you all to Moscow. As agreed during my visit to Baku, we are holding this meeting today.
The President and I have just had a one-on-one discussion, and yesterday evening we had an informal conversation, in which we touched on issues related to the current state of our relations.
I want to point out right away that our relations are developing positively, as we noted during my visit to Azerbaijan: 4.3 billion dollars in trade turnover, over 4 billion in direct investments in the Azerbaijani economy, and many solid, interesting projects in both the energy sector and infrastructure development. These are all promising, real, and viable projects – both bilateral and multilateral.
We are very glad that, on the margins of the CIS heads of state meeting, we have the opportunity today to exchange information on current work and perhaps outline or make some adjustments to this progress, which is evident.
We are very happy to see you. Welcome!
President Ilham Aliyev said:
- Thank you, esteemed Vladimir Vladimirovich, for the opportunity to meet today, and thank you also for yesterday's dinner. By the way, I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate you once again on your belated birthday.
Since your state visit, the dynamics of our bilateral relations have been quite noticeable. There have been many contacts at the level of representatives from various agencies and government members, as a follow-up to the decisions reached in August in Baku.
Today is also a good opportunity, as you noted, to revisit these issues because the agenda is quite extensive, and the projects, especially the new ones that we outlined in Baku in August, certainly require our constant attention and oversight. So today is a good opportunity to revisit the agenda once again and determine specific steps to implement the agreements we have reached.
Once again, thank you for the meeting.
President Vladimir Putin: Dear Ilham Heydarovich, we look forward to seeing you in Kazan on October 23-24 for the BRICS, BRICS Plus/Outreach events. I am confident that these will be productive meetings, providing an opportunity to work with all the leaders of the participating countries. And, of course, we are inviting a large number of countries that are eager to cooperate with BRICS. Twenty-five colleagues have confirmed their participation. Therefore, such platforms are always convenient for work, considering the opportunity to discuss a wide range of issues of interest to the participants of these events. I believe it will be both useful and interesting. We look forward to seeing you in Kazan.
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich. Azerbaijan is indeed among the 25 countries Sergey Viktorovich mentioned that have confirmed their participation. I accept your invitation with pleasure and look forward to our next meeting. Thank you.
