Beijing, May 31, AZERTAC

Azerbaijan State News Agency (AZERTAC) and Chinese news agency Xinhua have discussed the ways of developing partnership as AZERTAC Chairman of the Board Aslan Aslanov met with President of Xinhua Cai Mingzhao at the agency’s headquarters in Beijing.

“The dynamically developing relations between Azerbaijan’s AZERTAC and China’s Xinhua state news agencies will continue to expand and enter a new stage thanks to the cooperation agreement to be signed on June 1,” said Aslan Aslanov. He described Azerbaijan-China relations as excellent, saying the heads of state attach great importance to mutual cooperation in all areas.

“AZERTAC and Xinhua enjoy a long-term close partnership and the cooperation agreement to be signed between the two state agencies on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s first media forum will be a significant contribution to further expansion of our relations,” Aslan Aslanov said.

He highlighted the activity of the Chinese language service at AZERTAC. “The Chinese language courses are conducted by the Confucius Institute for AZERTAC employees. More than 50 AZERTAC employees have participated in these courses so far.”

“A number of joint projects have been implemented by the two agencies over the past period. Together with Xinhua we co-organized a photo exhibition in Baku, and held the presentation of the Chinese version of AZERTAC website in Beijing.”

Aslan Aslanov hailed successful cooperation between the two agencies both in bilateral format and within international media organizations.

They exchanged views on prospects for developing relations between AZERTAC, which holds the presidency of News Agencies World Congress and the Organization of Asia-Pacific News Agencies (OANA), and Xinhua, which is the OANA Bureau member, within the organization.

AZERTAC Chairman of the Board Aslan Aslanov noted that Azerbaijan has hosted a number of international events and become a venue for the discussion of issues of global concern. He invited the Xinhua President to attend the Baku International Humanitarian Forum to be held on 4-6 October this year.

President of Xinhua Cai Mingzhao noted that they attach great importance to cooperation with AZERTAC, adding that the agreement to be signed on June 1 will open new prospects for further strengthening relations between the two agencies. He underlined that along with the news exchange, the document will pave the way for the implementation of joint projects.

“We will do our utmost to expand our relations. We are grateful to you for your supporting our agency’s activity in Azerbaijan. Xinhua attaches great importance to its activities within OANA and highly appreciates AZERTAC’s contributions to the development of the organization as its president,” Cai Mingzhao said.

They hailed Azerbaijan’s contributions to the development of a transport corridor from China to Europe as part of China’s “One Belt, One Road” strategy, AZERTAC`s inclusion into an alliance set up by Xinhua for ensuring wider dissemination of information about these major projects. The sides also discussed joint use of a relevant single database.

Aslan Aslanov and Cai Mingzhao also discussed news exchange, the ways of improving the work of OANA and addressing the challenges facing the media in Asia and the Pacific, and a number of other issues of mutual interest.

Shahin Jafarov

Elshan Shahbalayev