Baku, July 22, AZERTAC

After the official welcoming ceremony, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the European Council Donald Tusk have had an expanded meeting with participation of delegations.

President Ilham Aliyev said:

Mr President, welcome to Azerbaijan.

I am very glad to see you again. I also welcome your delegation. Your visit is an important step towards the development of European Union-Azerbaijan relations. We are very much satisfied with the development of our relationship. We have achieved a lot, and, of course, there are plans for the future.

We will discuss prospects for our cooperation today. As regards our position, we are very pleased with the fact that there is a very broad agenda, which covers many areas that are of great importance to Azerbaijan, Europe and regional security.

Therefore we are concentrating on traditional areas, which are political dialogue, economic cooperation, trade relationship, energy security and other areas. I hope that during your visit we will have a good chance to discuss what has been done and also what we are planning to do. Definitely relations between EU and Azerbaijan will be elevated and will enter the new stage which will be mutually beneficial and which reflect the interests of Europe, interests of Azerbaijan, regional security issues and regional development. Welcome once again.

Donald Tusk said:

Thank you, Mr. President especially for the invitation and the hospitality. I remember well my first visit to Baku. It was five years ago. This is my first visit in my role as President of the European Council. Thank you for patience as you know I had to postpone my visit because of some European problems. Thanks for understanding. I am here now.

President Ilham Aliyev: Fortunately all the difficult times are already in the past.

Donald Tusk: I am not as optimistic as you, Mr President. But I hope we will tackle this big problems related to Greece.

Thank you very much again. For me it was very important to be here not only because of our friendship, but, first of all, because of the importance of our relationship in those areas that you mentioned. For me personally our relations are important because of the idea of so-called Energy Union that is related to our cooperation. As Europe for us our cooperation in this field is not only business. This is a strategic choice and strategic chance to diversify our roots of energy resources.