Foreign

Home page

Foreign

Sergei Lavrov: “Strategic cooperation with Azerbaijan improved”

17 January 2020 17:49 (UTC +04:00)

“Strategic cooperation with Azerbaijan consistently has improved in all key spheres over the last year,” Acting Foreign Minister of Russia Sergei Lavrov stated, APA’s Moscow bureau reports.

Russian FM stated that open and reliable dialogues between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Vladimir Putin made a significant contribution to the strengthening of bilateral relations: “Three meetings were held between Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents in 2019. These meetings took place at the forum Belt and Road on April 26 in Beijing, at the Valdai forum on October 3 and within the framework of an informal meeting of the CIS heads of state held on December 20.”

Sergei Lavrov, reminding First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva’s visit to Moscow on November 20-25, 2019, and the official visit of Chairperson of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matvienko to Baku in April last year, noted that intergovernmental and inter-parliamentary relations between the two countries have been actively developed.

“Russia is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan. During January-October 2019 the volume of trade turnover between the two countries amounted to US$ 2.5 billion which is 25% more as compared with the same period of 2018. 5 road maps aimed at raising to a higher quality level the Russian-Azerbaijani strategic cooperation are successfully implemented. The development of a new additional road map related to cooperation in the area of innovative development and digital economy has been launched by the concerned departments. Currently, 950 joint enterprises are functioning in Azerbaijan. Russia has invested US$ 4.5 billion in the Azerbaijani economy, and Azerbaijan has invested US$ 1.5 billion in the Russian economy. Traditionally, joint projects in cultural and humanitarian and education spheres are implemented at a high level. In 2019, the Days of Russian Culture were held in Azerbaijan, and in its turn, the Days of Azerbaijani Culture were held in Russia. We establish successful mutual relations with Baku on various international arenas”, S. Lavrov stressed.