President Ilham Aliyev and crown prince Emir Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al Saud talk in an enlarged format

President Ilham Aliyev presented the Azerbaijan's highest award Order Istiglal (Independence) to Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud.

Having thanked the President for the award, Emir Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud greeted him on behalf of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King of Saudi Arabia Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and the people of the country, and wished the visit to be successful becoming a new stage of development of relations between the two countries.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude for the hospitality, and said he was pleased to visit this beautiful country. Cooperation between our two countries rests on deep historical, religious and cultural roots, he said. The President stressed that Saudi Arabia had supported Azerbaijan since the country gained its independence, and expressed confidence that this visit would foster development of Azerbaijan-Saudi Arabia relations.

After that the parties exchanged views on the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The Azerbaijani leader told in detail of the roots, current situation and state of the peace talks in the framework of the OSCE Minsk group.

In response, Emir Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud noted that his country would continue to support fair stance of Azerbaijan in this regard. Government officials will be given concrete instructions on the issue, he said.

President Ilham Aliyev and Emir Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud have also discussed a number of other issues of mutual interest.