Ex-Belgian PM: EU leaders pay special respect and attention to Azerbaijan

The European Union and its leaders treat Azerbaijan and President Ilham Aliyev with special respect and attention, former Belgian Prime Minister and member of the International Nizami Ganjavi Centre Yves Leterme said.

"President Ilham Aliyev has demonstrated a willingness to provide the people of Armenian descent living in Karabakh with unprecedented opportunities to benefit from the region's progress and prosperity. I recently visited Azerbaijan and was impressed by the speed and volume of investment in infrastructure, education, security, social services, and economic development. It is in the interest of the European Union to deepen and strengthen cooperation with Azerbaijan. In the economic sphere, there are still many opportunities for the EU to cooperate with Azerbaijani partners, in particular, by investing in economic and industrial diversification of the country," he told Trend on December 24.

Leterme believes that Azerbaijan also has the potential to become one of the transport and communication hubs between East and West.

"Azerbaijan is in a critical region of Eurasia and plays a stabilising role in a world full of tension and antagonism. Azerbaijan has an important and under-fulfilled economic potential. Security, reliability, and good infrastructure with particular attention to multimodal transport and investments in ICT are key to exploiting all the opportunities Azerbaijan offers to European and Asian companies and investors. I am convinced that the policies and efforts currently underway will prove of great benefit to present and future generations of Azerbaijan and the entire Caucasus region," said the former prime minister of Belgium.

As a member of the Nizami Ganjavi International Centre, Leterme also thanked President Ilham Aliyev for his continued support and commitment to the Centre.