Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

A delegation of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada working group on inter-parliamentary relations with Azerbaijan is on a visit to Azerbaijan this week.

During the visit, the delegation held a series of meetings with Azerbaijani officials, AzerTac state news agency reported.

On the first day of the visit they met with representatives of Azerbaijan-Ukraine working group on inter-parliamentary relations.

Addressing the meeting, Eldar Ibrahimov, chairman of the parliamentary working group talked about friendly and brotherly relations between the two countries, emphasizing growing development of economic, political and cultural ties between them.

He underlined the importance of mutual visits, saying that the two countries are strategic partners, which support each other in international organizations.

Roman Nasirov, head of the Verkhovna Rada’s working group, for his part, expressed his satisfaction with the entrenched ties between the two sides, adding existence of mutual cooperation between the two countries' legislatures.

Expressing hope that the visit will contribute to the ties development, he said, “Azerbaijan’s development and achievements pleased Ukraine.”

The delegation also met Ogtay Asadov, the speaker of Azerbaijan parliament. The sides highlighted the role of the legislature and inter-parliamentary group that gave their impetus for tying the relations

Elmar Mammadyarov, Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister received the delegation on March 31.

Underlining the importance of inter-parliamentary relations Mammadyarov said that this visit would contribute to developing ties between the two countries.

Roman Nasirov spoke about the productivity of the visit and noted their interest in having experience exchange on various fields with Azerbaijan.

The sides also touched upon the cooperation in the fields of agriculture, industry, culture and sports, and noted the significance of joint inter-governmental commission.

Following the meeting, the delegation met with Aydin Aliyev, the chairman of the State Customs Committee and discussed expansion of relations in the customs filed.

Aliyev brought to the attention of his audience the interest of the country in the expansion of mutual cooperation with Ukrainian customs.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. The embassy of Ukraine in Azerbaijan was established in 1996, the embassy of Azerbaijan in Ukraine was opened in 1997.

The basis of the relations between the two countries is laid by a treaty between Azerbaijan and Ukraine on friendship, cooperation and partnership signed in 2000 and the Declaration between the two sides on strategic partnership and friendship signed in 2008.

The two countries signed bilateral intergovernmental documents on cooperation in the field of oil transportation through the territory of Ukraine in January 2011 in Davos.

The trade turnover between Ukraine and Azerbaijan was $900 million in 2012.

Azerbaijan and Ukraine hold consultations within the UN, Council of Europe, BSEC, GUAM, CIS and other international and regional organizations and traditionally support of each other. Moreover, the two countries cooperate in the fight against terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking and other dangerous crimes.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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