President Ilham Aliyev warmly welcomed his Iranian counterpart.
"Welcome to Azerbaijan, Mr. President. Your visit is very important. This is the fourth time we meet each other, and this testifies that Iran-Azerbaijan relations are developing," the president said.
Ilham Aliyev added that the visit will be successful, and will bring new impetus to the bilateral relations.
Ilham Aliyev also recalled his official visit to Iran.
"In April of this year I visited your beautiful country, and we held a wide exchange of views, and today this dialogue continues," he said.
The Azerbaijani president also said he was happy to see Rouhani arrived accompanied by a delegation, and added that the relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have great history and a bright future. He said friendship, fraternal relations between the two peoples is the basis of two countries’ relations.
"For centuries, our peoples have been in close contact with each other,” President Aliyev said. “They lived and worked together. This is a solid foundation. The bilateral relations are established on this basis. These relations have risen to a new level in recent months. Our countries have excellent political relations. Regular contacts, mutual visits of high-ranking officials, the support rendered to each other in international organizations clearly shows the high level of our political relations," he said.
"Our countries constantly support each other in international organizations which we joined and in all issues. We support each other in the most important and sensitive issues for our countries. Our countries are always together and support each other in the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and others," Ilham Aliyev said.
Ilham Aliyev said the relations of the two countries have entered a new stage.
"We have a very broad agenda," he said. "We discuss political, economic, cultural and humanitarian issues. The basis of our relations is historical ties, the history of common culture, which is the symbol of our current developing ties."
He also said that there are excellent opportunities in the economic sphere.
"An intergovernmental joint commission actively works, producing excellent results,” President Aliyev said. “We discussed energy cooperation. There are tremendous opportunities in the field of oil and gas, electric power engineering, and gas exchange. Several projects have been already implemented. New projects are expected to be implemented.”
President Aliyev also said the sides held broad discussions on transport issues.
“Creation of the North-South transport corridor is in the interest of both sides. We actively participate and make efforts to implement this important project,” Ilham Aliyev said.
The president said the North-South transport corridor is of great importance not only for Iran and Azerbaijan, but also for the whole region.
“In general, I would like to say that our political and economic relations, the implementation of concrete projects will strengthen and is strengthening stability in the region,” he said. “Unfortunately, the situation in the region is tense enough. Bloody clashes and wars break out, stability is disturbed.”
“Iranian-Azerbaijani friendship and partnership are stabilizing factors here. We keep and protect peace in the region with the stabilizing steps,” Aliyev said, expressing confidence that stability will be restored in the region in the future as a result of joint efforts of Azerbaijan and Iran.
“Given that no country can develop without stability, and no foreign investments will be made in such a country, economic development is out of question," Aliyev said. “With our efforts we make contribution to regional cooperation as well.”
President Aliyev said the Astrakhan summit of the heads of Caspian Sea countries was successful and brought great results and important decisions were made during this summit.
“This is our attitude to international issues. We are making steady progress in all other spheres,” he said.
Naturally, good cooperation has been established in the humanitarian sphere and that’s not accidental, since Azerbaijani and Iranian people have lived and worked together for centuries, said the head of state.
Mentioning that Azerbaijan`s and Iran`s common history and culture are of great importance to the world, President Aliyev said he is confident that the negotiations, exchange of opinions will boost the Azerbaijani-Iranian ties further.
“We are working on concrete projects. Implementation of infrastructure projects, cooperation in the banking sector and other projects are under consideration,” Aliyev said.
Azerbaijani president added that the Nov. 13 business forum will bring together all entrepreneurs.
“We have strong relations. Iranian-Azerbaijani friendship is unbreakable and no extraneous force can break it,” Aliyev said. “Our unity is necessary for the future of our countries and the region.”
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