Baku, October 12, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia Hun Manet delivered press statements on October 12.

The President of Azerbaijan made the statement first.

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear Mr. Prime Minister, dear guests, ladies and gentlemen,

Once again, Mr. Prime Minister, welcome to Azerbaijan. I'm sure that the visit will be very fruitful and pleasant for you.

You will spend several days in Azerbaijan and will also attend the CICA Summit in the coming days, so your personal participation in this event is also a great honor for us.

I also remember the meeting with your father, the former Prime Minister and now Chairman of the Senate, here in Azerbaijan 12 years ago. This is a continuation of our policy. We are good friends and partners.

We actively cooperate in international organizations, support each other, and have also agreed to intensify our contacts on the bilateral track, having very good political ties and working actively in the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and CICA.

We definitely also need to see what we can do on the trade and investment track. We discussed these opportunities at length and established a joint working group, which will concentrate on the practical aspects of our trade and investment cooperation. So, there are a lot of opportunities; the only obstacle could be distance, but in today's world, it's not a big problem. Another obstacle is the lack of information, and we need to close that gap.

I hope that today's business forum, with the participation of many companies from Cambodia and Azerbaijan, will help us get to know each other better, as well as understand the opportunities, economic priorities, investment priorities, and ways to engage in close economic cooperation.

Our trade turnover is still very modest, but again, I'm sure that after the Prime Minister's official visit, we will see a big boost in that area. We also discussed the possibility of establishing joint manufacturing facilities in different industrial areas, as well as tourism opportunities and education.

We had hundreds of Cambodian students studying in Azerbaijan during the times of the Soviet Union. So, we think that we need to restore this tradition and create mutual opportunities for students to study in both countries, which will also help establish closer people-to-people contacts.

Transportation and digital transformation are also among the areas that were discussed and are considered priorities.

We are also glad that our public services system, ASAN, which has proved to be very efficient and has an approval rating of almost 100 percent among Azerbaijani society, is of interest to Cambodia. This system already exists in many friendly countries of Azerbaijan. I'm sure that this could also be a good contribution to our bilateral relationship.

The parliamentary dimension also demonstrates a good level of solidarity. In both countries, we have parliamentary friendship groups. The Azerbaijani parliament, with the support of Cambodia, also became an observer in the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, which also demonstrates that Asia, and Southeast Asia in particular, is important for Azerbaijan and is one of our foreign policy priorities.

And Azerbaijan, as a country situated just between Asia and Europe, of course, plays its role in connectivity.

We also discussed one issue that is unfortunately a common problem for us: landmines. Both our countries have suffered and are suffering from landmines, and the exchange of experience, knowledge, know-how, and training is of extreme importance.

Since the liberation of Azerbaijani lands from occupation in recent years, we have had more than 400 casualties and deaths caused by landmines planted by Armenia during the occupation.

And also peace and security. Both countries consider peace and security to be the main requisites for development, and peace and security should also be based on the norms of international law, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. After 30 years of occupation, Azerbaijan restored its territorial integrity and sovereignty by force. And now every inch of Azerbaijani land is under the control of the Azerbaijani government and people. The large-scale restoration efforts and the Great Return Program are now being implemented in the lands that have been cleared of Armenian occupation forces. Almost 100,000 people already live and work in those areas, and this process continues. So, we have had and continue to face more or less similar challenges, but again, a strong commitment to international law and the decisions of international organizations also unites us.

Once again, Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. I know that you have a very busy program. I'm sure that you will enjoy your stay in Azerbaijan during both your official visit and the Summit. In the meantime, I also hope that you will find time to get to know our country better. Once again, welcome.

x x x

Then, the Prime Minister of Cambodia made the statement.

Statement by Prime Minister Hun Manet

- Thank you, Mr. President.

First of all, on behalf of our delegation, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the warm hospitality, as well as for the invitation to attend the CICA Summit in Baku and to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan today.

As Mr. President mentioned, we held a meeting earlier today. We covered a wide range of issues on which we can work together to strengthen bilateral cooperation. In addition, we have the three agreements that we signed, which provide a framework platform for further engagement in trade, education, and other potential areas.

I agree with Mr. President that commercial and trade ties, as well as relations in other areas, between our countries remain at a modest level. Our countries have a history of relations spanning more than 30 years. Hun Sen visited Azerbaijan in 2014, and that visit established a roadmap for the cooperation that has continued to this day.

I am confident that, following my visit today, we will be able to strengthen our cooperation through joint efforts, particularly in areas such as trade. We agreed to develop a framework agreement envisaging the establishment of a joint trade working group that will identify and implement concrete measures to expand our trade ties. We have also worked on and discussed cooperation in defense, security, and education.

At the multilateral level, we reaffirmed our shared commitment to strengthening cooperation across international platforms. Cambodia has previously supported Azerbaijan's efforts to obtain observer status in ASEAN and to develop its relations with the ASEAN communities.

I believe that, amid the increasingly complex global situation, interaction between regions and countries is becoming more important, particularly in the international arena. In this regard, Cambodia's and Azerbaijan's commitment to strengthening bilateral cooperation will also contribute to the development of this multilateral engagement.

As for other matters, I believe Mr. President has comprehensively covered all the issues we discussed. The next step is to identify ways to work together to translate our discussions into concrete actions, implement them in practice, and achieve tangible results.

This afternoon, I will have a chance to meet with representatives of Azerbaijan's private sector. We will also invite an Azerbaijani business delegation to Cambodia to explore existing opportunities. I believe that direct engagement between the private sectors is quite important for creating tangible opportunities and identifying concrete prospects for investment cooperation.

We also discussed the possibility of arranging a meeting between representatives of our countries' civil aviation authorities and signing an air services agreement that would facilitate expanded air connectivity. I believe this covers the main points of our discussions.

Mr. President, I would once again like to express my sincere gratitude for your invitation. On behalf of the Cambodian people, I would also like to thank the Government of Azerbaijan for its support for our country over the years, particularly through the provision of scholarships in the field of education. We hope that this cooperation will expand to other areas in the future.

Finally, I would like to convey His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni's invitation to Your Excellency to visit Cambodia. I believe that such a visit would provide an opportunity for more extensive discussions on the further development of cooperation between our two countries. At the same time, I wish you every success in chairing the CICA Summit in the coming days.

Thank you.