Baku, September 15, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman have held a meeting in an expanded format with the participation of delegations.

The heads of state made speeches at the meeting.

President Ilham Aliyev said:

- Dear Mr. President,

Members of the delegation,

Welcome to Azerbaijan again!

Mr. President, I am pleased to see you. This is your first visit to our country. I am confident that the visit will be very successful and we will move forward in bilateral relations.

As we have just pointed out during our discussion, the relations between our countries are developing very successfully. They cover many areas and rest on a good foundation. We cooperate in political, economic, cultural and energy fields. There is a mutual understanding at the bilateral level.

We met several times in the Czech Republic and other places, and now we are meeting in Baku. There is a mutual understanding on issues of economic relations and regional issues between us.

Today we also discussed regional situation. Regional stability and predictability are among most important elements of a positive development. In countries where stability is disrupted we observe extremely negative consequences. The Czech Republic and Azerbaijan are good partners and friendly countries. Our main focus, of course, will be on the promotion of economic cooperation.

Tomorrow we will meet with business communities of our countries. There is great potential in the business sphere. We will definitely discuss it in detail with the participation of delegations, but the information I was given on the eve of your visit shows that there is good progress and growth in mutual trade. We must pay attention to the structure of trade and make it more balanced than it is now.

Mr. President, welcome once again. I am sure that the time spent in Azerbaijan will be meaningful and you will be able to get more information about our country. You have a very busy visit program. Please accept my best wishes. Thank you.

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President Milos Zeman said:

Thank you, Mr. President.

Let me repeat your words. As you noted saying nice words about the cooperation is good, but signing concrete agreements is better. Am I right? Nice. Me and my colleagues are not visiting your country for solving any problem. Because there are no problems between us at all. We are here to use our potential in economic partnership and to increase this potential.