BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 19. Azerbaijan and Russia act as allies, friends, close partners, and neighbors, said President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev during a joint press conference with President of Russia Vladimir Putin, TurkicWorld reports.
The head of state highlighted the special nature of President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to Azerbaijan.
Statement by President Ilham Aliyev
- Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,
Dear guests,
Dear friends,
Once again, I would like to warmly welcome our dear guests. The President of the Russian Federation is paying a state visit to Azerbaijan. The visit is special in nature. Our summit meetings are regular. This year we have met twice: once in Moscow and once on the sidelines of an international event. But, of course, the format and nature of a state visit are quite special, if you like, and this is evidence of a high level of interstate relations.
The documents adopted today, including, in particular, the Joint Declaration of the Presidents, once again confirm the friendly and allied nature of our relations.
The Declaration on Allied Interaction, which was signed in February 2022, is being successfully implemented. Our countries act as allies, friends, close partners, and neighbors.
Today, we discussed a wide range of interstate relations in great detail. Suffice it to look at the composition of delegations to see that the scope of activities of interstate agencies is indeed quite broad.
We have analyzed in detail the issues related to trade and economic relations. The growth in turnover last year and the first six months of this year shows great potential for cooperation. Last year, we crossed the $4 billion mark, and we exchanged our views that, of course, this is not the limit.
Special attention is always paid to the area of humanitarian cooperation. There are 324 schools in Azerbaijan where teaching is provided in Russian, with about 160,000 pupils studying in them. More than 800,000 students learn Russian as a second language. There are Russian language departments in 26 universities in Azerbaijan, benefiting more than 15,000 students.
The branches of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov are functioning successfully. Today, we also discussed the development of relations in the field of education.
We also discussed in detail, during the meeting in a limited format, issues related to regional security. After September of last year, a completely new situation arose in the region – Azerbaijan completely restored its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Naturally, the new situation opens up ample opportunities for establishing a strong and lasting peace in the South Caucasus. The stability and security of the entire South Caucasus region largely depend on close cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan.
We also discussed in detail the implementation of the North-South project, which is of exceptional importance for our interstate relations, as well as for issues related to regional transport corridors and transport routes.
I must say that both the railway and automobile segments of the North-South corridor have been fully implemented and are successfully operating on the territory of Azerbaijan. At the moment, we are actively modernizing the railway segment of this corridor to increase its throughput capacity. We are talking about the possibility of transporting cargo of 15 million tons per year and higher – up to 30 million tons, and this is quite feasible. In this case, both Russia and Azerbaijan, and I hope that and other participants in this corridor as well, will continue their activities with joint efforts.
Again, I must say that this year we have already allocated approximately $120 million (in the dollar equivalent) for the modernization of this railway section to achieve the required throughput capacity.
There are 20 flights a day between different cities of Russia and Azerbaijan. I must say that there weren’t so many mutual flights even during the Soviet Union. Moreover, they are shared equally between Azerbaijani and Russian carriers. This indicates that contacts between people are of a regular nature. Today, we also acknowledged an increase in mutual visits between the citizens of our countries.
In the energy sector, the situation was analyzed in detail, both in the oil and gas sectors and in the electricity sector. We are working hard in this direction, and I am sure that we will continue to coordinate our activities.
We have also exchanged views on an issue that concerns both sides, namely the environmental situation in the Caspian Sea, particularly the fact that it is becoming catastrophically shallow. From the window of the room where we held talks, I showed Vladimir Vladimirovich the rocks that were underwater just two years ago, and today they are already one meter above the surface. We are observing this along the entire coast of the Absheron Peninsula – in fact, not only there but also along the entire coast of Azerbaijan. We have agreed to jointly analyze the situation and outline solutions both in a bilateral and five-party format to prevent a possible environmental disaster. In other words, we can already see the manifestations of this environmental disaster with the naked eye.
I have also expressed my gratitude to Vladimir Vladimirovich and the Russian side as a whole for supporting Azerbaijan's candidacy as a venue for the Climate Conference - COP29. Russia's support was extremely important, and we are now working, including in a bilateral format, on issues related to the preparation for this climate conference.
I would like to express my gratitude to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, once again for accepting my invitation and visiting Azerbaijan on a state visit. Without a doubt, this visit is of historic significance and will make an important contribution to the strengthening of friendly and allied relations between our countries.
Thank you for your attention.
