Shusha meeting puts spotlight on expanding Azerbaijan-Slovakia partnership PHOTO / UPDATED

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Slovak counterpart Peter Pellegrini held an expanded-format meeting in Shusha on July 14, focusing on the advancement of bilateral ties, key areas of cooperation, and future prospects for partnership.

Speaking at the meeting, Aliyev welcomed his Slovak counterpart and highlighted the importance of maintaining the active dialogue that has contributed to the steady development of Azerbaijani-Slovak relations, Caliber.Az reports via state media.

President Ilham Aliyev said: Dear guests, welcome to Azerbaijan. Welcome to Garabagh. I am very glad to see you. First of all, thank you for your hospitality. I have very good memories of my official visit to your country last year and of our discussions. I'm glad that we are continuing our active dialogue. I am also glad that you are accompanied by a very big delegation with very prominent figures of your administration and the government. We also have a big team and this actually demonstrates the scope of work, bilateral agenda, and those directions of our joint activity in which we see progress and where we want to see additional progress. We just had a tête-à-tête exchanging views on many issues, now we'll continue with delegations, so I'm absolutely sure that this visit will give additional boost to our partnership.

It's a special pleasure to host you in Garabagh. Tomorrow you will be in Baku. We will visit also the smart village which is being now developed by a Slovak company – another good demonstration of our strong bonds. Reconstruction here in Garabagh is now one of the main priorities for our government. Therefore, participation of Slovakian specialists is of extreme importance. We will cover many issues on our agenda today. Once again welcome and thank you for accepting my invitation.

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President of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini said: Thank you very much Mr. President. It is a great honor for us to be back in Azerbaijan with such a strong delegation, and once again I would like to thank you for your invitation.

I also have in my memory your visit in Bratislava, which was a historical one in our diplomatic relationships. Of course, I really appreciate your idea to meet not in Baku but here in Garabagh, in Shusa. We are really impressed; though we have only been here for a few hours since last night, we are already impressed by the work that has been done in the few years since liberation, and the infrastructure projects. We are really proud that Slovakia is part of this. We are only one of two foreign countries which are participating in these important projects. We hope that the Slovak experts will also continue working in the coming years on some other new projects here.

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Following the meeting, they exchanged gifts.

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Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev held an expanded-format meeting with his Slovak counterpart Peter Pellegrini in Shusha on July 14.

The two leaders later took part in a ceremony for the exchange of gifts, Caliber.Az reports, citing the official website of the Azerbaijani president.

By Bakhtiyar Abbasov