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President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev's meeting with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has started in Astana, Azernews reports.

Speaking at the meeting, President of Russia Vladimir Putin said:

- Dear Ilham Heydarovich, I am very glad to see you again.

The scale of our interaction is quite extensive, and even if we were to meet every day, every month, I think we would have something to talk about.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that our relations on the key issue are developing positively, namely trade and economic cooperation. Our turnover is in excess of 4 billion dollars and direct Russian investments in Azerbaijan's economy amounts to 4.5 billion. There is an upward trend: I think there is 13 percent growth in the first half of the year. In general, everything is developing positively.

I would like to mention our plans in the field of infrastructure, and of course, the well-known North-South corridor comes first here. I do hope that we will say a few words about that as well. There are opportunities in other areas as well, including energy and industrial cooperation. We act on the basis of the agreement we signed at the end of 2022. This is a good basis for the development of relations in all areas.

Let me also mention the humanitarian component. I believe the Days of Russian Culture in Azerbaijan have just ended. And I always note your personal special attention to the support of the Russian language, with more than 300 schools in Azerbaijan working with the Russian language and teaching Russian language to young people, to children. This creates a good base and good prospects for maintaining and developing our relations in the future.

I am very glad to see you.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

- Thank you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, I am very pleased to see you again.

As you noted, there are many questions, but, in principle, this is how we meet: almost every month. I last visited Moscow in the second half of April, so we are meeting again in a little more than a month. This goes to show, as you noted, that there are a lot of issues that are being resolved very successfully. Of course, the growth of the turnover – both last year and this year – is a demonstration of the fact that our economies are actively interacting. It is gratifying that mutual settlements in national currencies are also growing: more than 70 percent of Azerbaijani exports to Russia and about 50 percent of Russian exports to Azerbaijan. So, the implementation of what you and I talked about a few years ago is successfully ongoing.

Humanitarian cooperation has always been the basis of our interaction. I am grateful to you for always noting and appreciating the attitude to the Russian language, Russian culture and literature that exists in Azerbaijan. The Days of Russian Culture in Azerbaijan, which were a huge success, once again confirm this. We have about a million students pursuing education in the Russian language: 150,000 in Russian schools and 800,000 study Russian as a second language. This means that the future generation of our citizens will be as actively interacting and speaking in Russian as we do.

We discussed the North-South project in Moscow last time. There have been positive developments since then, and we will talk about that. We are determined to expand the infrastructure of the corridor on the Azerbaijani territory. Although it physically exists, it does not correspond to the intentions of our partners and neighbors to maximize the use of this project.

As you mentioned, there are also new ideas in the energy sector, and our relevant entities are in constant contact. We will also talk about that today. And the same applies to all other areas.

As you noted, in 2022 we signed a declaration of alliance, which we are successfully implementing, and all provisions of the declaration are reflected in life. We have been working together as allies for more than two years, demonstrating good results. We will talk about this in detail today.

Thank you once again for the opportunity to see you.

xxx

During the meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his readiness to continuously support the normalization of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and to advance the peace agenda. Discussions were held on this topic. The head of state provided information on the process of normalizing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

The conversation also included an exchange of views on cooperation in transportation, shipbuilding, pharmaceuticals, and the automotive industry, including the organization of production in Azerbaijan by various Russian car manufacturers.

They noted that the number of tourists coming to Azerbaijan from Russia has increased, and that the Russian Drama Theater is operating in Azerbaijan.

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