Medvedev, Aliyev

An official reception in honor of Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev and his spouse Svetlana Medvedeva was held on behalf of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and his spouse Mehriban Aliyeva at the Gulistan palace on September 2.

Official website of the President of Azerbaijan reports that the heads  of states made speeches at the reception.

In his speech President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

“Dear Dmitriy Anatolyevich!

Dear Svetlana Vladimirovna !

Dear guests!

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Dmitriy Anatolyevich, I would like to welcome you and your delegation here in Azerbaijan. We are very glad about your visit. We are very glad that it has already been the third visit of the Russian president to Azerbaijan recently. I always pay visits to Russia. This dynamic development of our relations is a bright prove of the close interaction between our countries. There is always a good ground to discuss bilateral issues, regional problems, consider the agenda of our relations which is quite wide and covers many spheres and the most rejoicing is that every new meeting and almost every visit open a new page in our relations.

Our relations are very strong, they are based on long friendship of our peoples. This is a strong foundation on which we built friendly, good neighbor relations. We have a very active political dialogue, we are actively interacting in regional issues. Our views coincide on almost all issues of regional nature, we have a single position and we do believe that those positive trends in our relations will further strengthen and develop.

Dear Dmitriy Anatolyevich, during your visit we will sign important political and economic documents which will further serve the strengthening of our relations and their development in all directions. We are very glad that this year we have managed to overcome the negative tendencies of the crisis 2009 in economy. We are enjoying the growth in trade turnover. I am sure that this growth will be stable and our economic relations will be high quality and comprehensive. The structure of trade turnover is improving and today we are working at the projects which will inevitable cause the growth in mutual trade.

We cooperate in issues of security and regional cooperation. We are neighbors. We are  neighbors in the sea and on the land. Russia and Azerbaijan are two Caspian states, two Caucasus countries. Certainly, we are concerned over the developments in our region and we are actively, effectively and sincerely working to reduce potential and existing risks in our region.

The issue of the resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno Karabakh conflict is also an integral part of our agenda. I would like to thank you, Dmitriy Anatolyevich, for the active participation in this process. Six meetings of the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia have already been held with your participation. An important declaration defining ways of solving the conflict on the basis of norms and principles of international law, resolutions and decisions of international organizations. I do hope that your active mediation will continue and we will reach positive results.

I would like to stress the current active interaction in humanitarian sphere. I think that in this direction the relations between our countries can serve an example of relations that must exist between the countries and peoples which have lived nearby for centuries. This year we have held a very important and representative Russian-Azerbaijani forum of public in Baku and a joint decision has been passed for it to transform into the annual Baku international humanitarian forum. As you know Azerbaijan has a careful attitude towards the Russian language and Russian culture. Our country has over 300 schools in Russian, periodical editions whose number tops the number of those in the Soviet Union. We have a Russian cultural center, the House of Russian Book, affiliate of the Moscow State University. This makes us richer. This is the important factor in our relations. Regardless of the political relations, economic ties, common interests, our relations would have been incomplete without humanitarian component. And I am really happy that both Russia and Azerbaijan show a very careful attitude towards our heritage. The Azerbaijani community in Russia and Russian community in Azerbaijan are full citizens of our states who also contribute to strengthening of ties between our countries and peoples.

I would like to welcome you, Dmitriy Anatolyevich and Svetlana Vladimirovna, in Azerbaijan once again and raise this glass for your health and the further development of relations between our countries and peoples”.

1news.az