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Azerbaijani President: "No country can become a transit country without cooperating with its neighbors"

17 January 2020 02:04 (UTC +04:00)

"The growing trade with neighboring countries is a very positive fact. Trade with all the neighboring countries has increased. Our trade with Turkey reached $4 billion last year.This is a large increase growth," President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said during his opening speech at the meeting on the results of 2019, APA reports.

The Head of State said trade with Russia has increased by 20-25 percent and with Iran by 30 percent. "Trade with Georgia has also increased. We successfully work in both bilateral and multilateral formats, including in the energy and transport fields. I have repeatedly said that no country can become a transit country without cooperating with its neighbors. Despite being a landlocked country, we have become one of the international transport centers today. How? Thanks to a thought-out policy and close relations with neighbors. Therefore, cooperation with neighbors in both bilateral and trilateral formats should be in the spotlight this year. All infrastructure projects should be implemented.

The construction of most of the road to the border with Russia should be completed this year. I am sure that the construction of a new highway from the city of Astara to the Iranian border will be completed. The same applies to the project on expanding the Ganja-Georgian border highway to four lanes. Most of this project should be completed this year. At the same time, I want to note that the new bridge opened on the Russian-Azerbaijani border at the end of last year will not only strengthen trade ties between Russia and Azerbaijan. It is also a part of the North-South transport corridor. Azerbaijan has expressed an interest in the construction of the Astara-Rasht railway and relevant documents have been signed. I am sure that our activities in this direction will be effective this year. In general, I can say that international trade relations are very important for us – both in terms of cooperation and increasing trade and investment. We both receive investments from neighboring states and invest in them ourselves. Investments ultimately bring us great returns."