Baku, February 16, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received credentials of the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus Andrei Ravkov.

Presenting her credentials to President Ilham Aliyev, Ambassador Andrei Ravkov said:

- Your Excellency President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, good afternoon. I am honored to present to you my letter of credentials on behalf of President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. With these credentials, he entrusts me with an extremely responsible mission as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Belarus to the Republic of Azerbaijan. Please note that the former Ambassador Gennady Vladimirovich Akhramovich has completed his work and left for the Republic of Belarus.

Welcoming the Ambassador, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- Thank you. Welcome to Azerbaijan, and I wish you a pleasant stay and active work here. In my opinion, there will be a lot to be done because the agenda of our interstate relations is quite broad and covers many areas. In recent years, we have actively cooperated in both the political and economic spheres, as well as in the field of industrial cooperation. Of course, we intend to continue such active interaction.

Most importantly, there are friendly relations between our countries. For many years, these relations have shown great potential and good dynamics. Our frequent contacts at the highest level and mutual visits, of course, have given a great impetus to the development of our relations, and we see good examples of cooperation. This also applies to trade. However, due to the pandemic, of course, there is a decline in GDP and trade in all countries. Nevertheless, I think we will recover from the pandemic quite soon. In general, in the last years before the pandemic, there was a very good momentum in our trade and economic relations. We observed an increase in the range of goods we import and export.

Of course, industrial cooperation is an important area of cooperation. There are good examples of Belarusian-Azerbaijani joint ventures in Azerbaijan. We even access the markets of third countries together. I think additional steps will be taken in this direction. Military and technical cooperation, which has been successfully implemented for many years, is an important area. We interact in order to increase the potential of our military and technical cooperation, including the field of high technology. So the agenda is sufficiently broad. I am confident that during your stay in Azerbaijan you will actively deal with these issues to further increase the potential for interaction. Of course, we will continue to support each other within international organizations, as was the case before. I am sure that such multilateral and multifaceted joint activities will continue to bring our countries closer together. I wish you successful work and a pleasant time in Azerbaijan.

Ambassador Andrei Ravkov: Thank you, Mr. President. First of all, let me convey to you the sincere greetings and best wishes of Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko, and extend his sincere gratitude to you as the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and as his friend for your support to the Republic of Belarus both bilaterally and internationally.

Belarus has always supported the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Republic of Azerbaijan in all matters and in a consistent manner. We welcomed with great enthusiasm the signing of a ceasefire statement and the return of Azerbaijan's ancient lands.

Dear Mr. President, you have said correctly that the friendship and high-level relations between the heads of state are key to this development and strengthening of mutual relations. Belarus is also interested in this.

The head of state thanked for the greetings and best wishes of the Belarus President and asked the ambassador to convey his greetings and best wishes to Alexander Lukashenko.