Azeri, Russia Presidents to discuss Nagorno Karabakh settlement

The Azerbaijani head of state's visit is viewed by the Kremlin officials in the context of top-level agreements to hold a permanent dialogue on all issues of mutual interest. It will be the fourth meeting of the Russian and Azerbaijani presidents this year – in February, President Putin paid a working visit to Baku, in June, the two heads of state met in Alma-Ata in the course of the second summit of the Conferences on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia and in July, Ilkham Aliyev took part in an informal summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) in Moscow.

A conversation between Putin and Aliyev will be central on the Azerbaijani president's visit agenda. They will exchange views on the progress of the fulfilment of clauses of a joint statement of the Russian and Azerbaijani presidents of February 22, 2006 that formalised the two sides’ intention to bring bilateral interstate relations to a qualitatively new level.

Kremlin administration officials noted the importance of trade-economic cooperation that is a key component of Russian-Azerbaijani relations. Mutual foreign trade turnover is growing at a fast pace. Over the first nine months of the current year, the turnover increased by over 50 percent as compared with the same period of 2005 and is expected to reach 1.5 billion US dollars by the end of the year, according to experts’ estimates. It instils hopes for the successful fulfilment of top-level agreement on its doubling and increasing to two billion dollars in the coming years.

Russia and Azerbaijan actively cooperate in the fuel and energy sector, including the transit of Azerbaijani oil through the Russian territory, Russian natural gas supplies to Azerbaijan. Baku has stated it is ready to become a co-founder of the Russian oil and petroleum products exchange.

The sides are developing and implementing joint projects in the sphere of electrical energy industry, transport, non-ferrous metallurgy, machine building, which is to qualitatively improve the structure of mutual trade turnover.

Kremlin administration officials pointed out that cooperation between Russian regions and Azerbaijan is important for integration processes between the two countries. As many as 140 enterprises from 12 constituent entities of the Russian Federation presented their products at a Russian national exhibition held in Baku in February. This year, an intergovernmental commission for trade-technical and cultural cooperation between Tatarstan and Azerbaijan started its work.

The two sides will give major attention to the humanitarian block of Russian-Azerbaijani relations and cultural ties development.

The presidents will summarise preliminary results of the exchange of the two countries' national year events. In 2005, the Year of Azerbaijan was held in Russia and the Year of Russia in Azerbaijan ended in December this year. The events held during this period made a considerable contribution to the strengthening of bilateral relations, deepening of political contacts, expansion of bilateral relations in the sphere of the economy, science and education and culture, as well as rapprochement between the Russian and Azerbaijani people.

The Russian and Azerbaijani heads of state will discuss the progress of the preparation for a summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) that will be held in the Belarussian capital Minsk on November 28.

The two presidents will exchange views on the situation in the Caucasus, including the Nagorno Karabakh settlement issue, ways of ensuring regional security and will also touch upon important international problems. Itar-Tass