Azerbaijan, Russia reaffirm strategic alliance in historic Baku meeting VIDEO/PHOTO/UPDATED

Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, made press statements on August 19.

The President of Azerbaijan made the statement first, Caliber.Az reports via Azertac.

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich,

Dear guests,

Dear friends,

Once again, I would like to warmly welcome our dear guests. The President of the Russian Federation is paying a state visit to Azerbaijan. The visit is special in nature. Our summit meetings are regular. This year we have met twice: once in Moscow and once on the sidelines of an international event. But, of course, the format and nature of a state visit are quite special, if you like, and this is evidence of a high level of interstate relations.

The documents adopted today, including, in particular, the Joint Declaration of the Presidents, once again confirm the friendly and allied nature of our relations.

The Declaration on Allied Interaction, which was signed in February 2022, is being successfully implemented. Our countries act as allies, friends, close partners, and neighbors.

Today, we discussed a wide range of interstate relations in great detail. Suffice it to look at the composition of delegations to see that the scope of activities of interstate agencies is indeed quite broad.

We have analyzed in detail the issues related to trade and economic relations. The growth in turnover last year and the first six months of this year shows great potential for cooperation. Last year, we crossed the $4 billion mark, and we exchanged our views that, of course, this is not the limit.

Special attention is always paid to the area of humanitarian cooperation. There are 324 schools in Azerbaijan where teaching is provided in Russian, with about 160,000 pupils studying in them. More than 800,000 students learn Russian as a second language. There are Russian language departments in 26 universities in Azerbaijan, benefiting more than 15,000 students.

The branches of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov and Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov are functioning successfully. Today, we also discussed the development of relations in the field of education.

We also discussed in detail, during the meeting in a limited format, issues related to regional security. After September of last year, a completely new situation arose in the region – Azerbaijan completely restored its sovereignty and territorial integrity. Naturally, the new situation opens up ample opportunities for establishing a strong and lasting peace in the South Caucasus. The stability and security of the entire South Caucasus region largely depend on close cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan.

We also discussed in detail the implementation of the North-South project, which is of exceptional importance for our interstate relations, as well as for issues related to regional transport corridors and transport routes.

I must say that both the railway and automobile segments of the North-South corridor have been fully implemented and are successfully operating on the territory of Azerbaijan. At the moment, we are actively modernizing the railway segment of this corridor to increase its throughput capacity. We are talking about the possibility of transporting cargo of 15 million tons per year and higher – up to 30 million tons, and this is quite feasible. In this case, both Russia and Azerbaijan, and I hope that and other participants in this corridor as well, will continue their activities with joint efforts.

Again, I must say that this year we have already allocated approximately $120 million (in the dollar equivalent) for the modernization of this railway section to achieve the required throughput capacity.

There are 20 flights a day between different cities of Russia and Azerbaijan. I must say that there weren’t so many mutual flights even during the Soviet Union. Moreover, they are shared equally between Azerbaijani and Russian carriers. This indicates that contacts between people are of a regular nature. Today, we also acknowledged an increase in mutual visits between the citizens of our countries.

In the energy sector, the situation was analyzed in detail, both in the oil and gas sectors and in the electricity sector. We are working hard in this direction, and I am sure that we will continue to coordinate our activities.

We have also exchanged views on an issue that concerns both sides, namely the environmental situation in the Caspian Sea, particularly the fact that it is becoming catastrophically shallow. From the window of the room where we held talks, I showed Vladimir Vladimirovich the rocks that were underwater just two years ago, and today they are already one meter above the surface. We are observing this along the entire coast of the Absheron Peninsula – in fact, not only there but also along the entire coast of Azerbaijan. We have agreed to jointly analyze the situation and outline solutions both in a bilateral and five-party format to prevent a possible environmental disaster. In other words, we can already see the manifestations of this environmental disaster with the naked eye.

I have also expressed my gratitude to Vladimir Vladimirovich and the Russian side as a whole for supporting Azerbaijan's candidacy as a venue for the Climate Conference - COP29. Russia's support was extremely important, and we are now working, including in a bilateral format, on issues related to the preparation for this climate conference.

I would like to express my gratitude to you, Vladimir Vladimirovich, once again for accepting my invitation and visiting Azerbaijan on a state visit. Without a doubt, this visit is of historic significance and will make an important contribution to the strengthening of friendly and allied relations between our countries.

Thank you for your attention.

x x x

Then, the President of Russia made the statement.

Statement by President Vladimir Putin

- Dear Ilham Heydarovich,

Dear friends, colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to thank Ilham Heydarovich again for the invitation to pay a state visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan. We are very pleased to be visiting the hospitable land of Azerbaijan, admire the views of Baku, a city prospering and developing under your leadership.

Let me emphasize that Russia attaches great importance to the development of multifaceted friendly relations with Azerbaijan. These relations are based on the principles of equality, consideration of each other's interests and, of course, close human and cultural ties that have bound our peoples for centuries.

In the course of today's negotiations, and yesterday as well, as we started them yesterday, I would like to thank you for the warm and family-like atmosphere that was created for the beginning of our meeting and joint work. And today, in the same atmosphere, we continued our business contacts in the full sense of the word. In the course of today's negotiations, we thoroughly discussed a broad range of issues of our interaction in a businesslike manner.

The adopted Joint Statement sets out new large-scale tasks for the further dynamic development of the entire range of bilateral ties. The documents signed today will also contribute to their solution. You have just witnessed it happen.

A lot of attention in the talks was paid to building up mutually beneficial trade and economic cooperation. And, this is only natural, because Russia and Azerbaijan are important economic partners for each other. This has already been mentioned, I said it at the beginning of our meeting today: there is a turnover of a little more than four billion dollars, and it is growing. In the first half of the year, it has already been supplemented by 17 percent. There is more than four billion of direct investment in the Azerbaijani economy. And of course, the almost 1,300 enterprises working in the Azerbaijani market are evidence of the fact that our situation is developing in a positive way and has good prospects for further development.

The President of Azerbaijan has just spoken about the directions in which we are working. Each of them is of real strategic importance for us.

Our colleagues in the Intergovernmental Commission are keeping the key issues of economic interaction in the spotlight at all times. Its regular meeting held in Baku on the eve of our visit was very effective.

Russia is among the largest investors and, as I have already noted, and we are only happy about that.

Our companies feel quite comfortable in the Azerbaijani market. It has already been mentioned here. These are LUKOIL, KAMAZ, which has organized assembly production, Sollers, and UAZ. They work successfully and there are prospects for further development. We are grateful to the Azerbaijani government for the conditions created for their work.

“Transmashholding” signed another contract in February to produce a large batch of Russian cars for the Baku Metro. I do hope that those who will be using these trains will also be satisfied.

I would like to emphasize our joint plans for the implementation of the North-South project. This will enable us to reach the shores of the Indian Ocean and use these routes for mutual benefit and interest.

Humanitarian ties are also actively expanding. The Days of Russian Culture were successfully held in Azerbaijan in June, with a multitude of exhibitions, concerts, theater performances and other bright cultural events.

By good tradition, we would like to invite our Azerbaijani friends to come to the 10th anniversary St. Petersburg International Cultural Forum in September.

The Russian language is widely and freely used in Azerbaijan. We feel that the leadership of the Republic of Azerbaijan supports this trend in every possible way. Ilham Heydarovich, we are grateful to you for this attention to the Russian language. There are more than 300 Russian-language schools in the country. Branches of the Moscow State University and Sechenov Moscow Medical University have been opened.

At present – we have just discussed it during our work in a large group – the initiative to establish a Russian-Azerbaijani university in Baku is also under consideration. The President of Azerbaijan has supported this idea. I do hope that we will realize it quickly enough. St. Petersburg State University is ready to join such a project from our side.

A lot of work is underway in Russia to train highly qualified personnel for Azerbaijan. Currently, about 8,000 Azerbaijani young people are studying in Russian universities, including more than a thousand at the expense of the Russian federal budget. Our countries are honoring the feat of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. They remember that our fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers defended our common Motherland together and made a decisive contribution to saving the world from Nazism. Ilham Heydarovich and I agreed to widely mark the upcoming 80th anniversary of our common Great Victory.

As I said, a number of issues on the regional agenda were also discussed in our talks, of course, taking into account the role Azerbaijan plays in the Caspian region and Transcaucasia.

We have also touched upon topical international issues. In foreign policy, both our countries are strongly committed to the principle of the rule of international law, sovereignty and non-interference in internal affairs of other countries.

Russia and Azerbaijan closely coordinate their efforts at key multilateral platforms, including the UN and, of course, the Commonwealth of Independent States. In October, we will be delighted to welcome Ilham Heydarovich at the meeting of the Council of CIS Heads of State in Moscow, as well as the outreach meeting, which will be held within the framework of the BRICS summit in Kazan in October this year.

We also did not overlook the current state of relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Let me emphasize that Russia will continue to do everything possible to promote the normalization of Azerbaijani-Armenian cooperation and the conclusion of a peace treaty based on the well-known trilateral agreements reached by the Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia in 2020-2022. We are also ready to facilitate the delimitation and demarcation of the border, given that we have relevant documents from the times of the Soviet Union, the unblocking of cross-border routes, and the establishment of humanitarian contacts.

We proceed from the fact that lasting peace and stability in the South Caucasus fully meet the fundamental interests of all states and peoples of this region.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasize again that we are certainly pleased with the results of the visit. I am confident that the negotiations held today and the agreements reached will serve to further strengthen the Russian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership.

Thank you for your attention.