President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev received at the Presidential palace, a delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran led by Commander -in- Chief of the Frontier troops of the Interior Ministry, General-Mayor Behnam Shariyatifar, on January 27.

Sincerely welcoming the guests, the head of state Ilham Aliyev said: dear Mr. Commander, dear guests, welcome to Azerbaijan. Bilateral relations between Iran and Azerbaijan are being developed and strengthened day by day. These relations have been brought up to higher level, specially after the official visit of President Heydar Aliyev to Iran. It has played great and significant role in establishment of the bilateral relations. After that, our links began to develop in all spheres.

I met with President of Iran, esteemed Mr. Hatami, during the International Forum in Geneva. I also had meetings with Foreign Minister Mr. Kharrazi in New York, during UN General Assembly session. We had other meetings as well. All the talks, meetings made us confident that existing friendly relations between our two countries are developing and will develop in the future.

Cooperation between the two countries’ frontier services is also very successful. As You know, our common border is very long, 700 km. Of course, to defense this border, to strengthen the cooperation, the two frontier services must be in close contact, and I know it is really like that. And your visit to Azerbaijan confirms that once again. We want our bilateral relationship to further develop, out people to visit each other and our countries to be closer as well.

I am greeting You once again. I am confident your meetings here will foster our work in this direction.

Expressing his gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev, Commander -in- Chief of the Frontier troops, General-Mayor Behnam Shariyatifar said:

“Mr President, I thank Allah for this meeting. I thank You for creating the opportunity to meet with You. I extend my condolences to You on the occasion of passing away of the esteemed President Heydar Aliyev.

I congratulate You on your election as President of Azerbaijan Republic. That was a step towards deepening and further development of the relations between our two countries. Our cooperation will be continued in this sphere of borders defense, as well. The Islamic Republic of Iran has borders with fifteen countries. We intend to achieve considerable progress in cooperation on the matter with all these states. In spite of the great problems we have in the East and the West, we attach great significance to Azerbaijan, and plan to expand our cooperation in this sphere.

We believe that protection of national interests must be realized within the frameworks of mutual respect and cooperation. Jointly with our Azerbaijani colleagues, we are going to take the necessary steps, to speed up these processes. If to keep in mind the community of our religion, cultural relations, then lack of frontier problems becomes evident.

We are very glad of successful activity of Azerbaijan frontier guards. Azerbaijan-Iran frontier services cooperation demonstrates development of the relations between our two countries.

Ilham Aliyev: Thank You very much. Our common both sea and land borders are long. That is why, a coordination of the frontier services’ activities is of great significance for bilateral relations. This will have great impact on our future economic relations as well. On the one hand, the frontier must be guarded reliably and objectionable incidents must not be allowed, on the other hand, our people must have the opportunity to cross the borders comfortably. To achieve these goals, the frontier services must cooperate on the base of complete mutual understanding. I am confident this cooperation will be strengthened in the future. And your visit is one more confirmation of that.

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The reception was attended by Chief of the state frontier service, Lieutenant- General Elchin Guliyev, Ambassador of Iran to Azerbaijan Ahad Gazai and other officials.