Baku, May 21, AZERTAC

Following the one-on-one meeting, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic have held a meeting in an expanded format with the participation of delegations.

The heads of state made speeches at the meeting.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

-Dear Mr President,

Dear guests,

I warmly welcome you in Azerbaijan. Welcome to Azerbaijan. We attach great importance to your visit. I am sure that the visit will be very successful and give great support to the development of Serbia-Azerbaijan relations.

Our relations are being successfully developed. We are friends and strategic partners.

The achievements made in recent years give us grounds to say that Serbia-Azerbaijan relations will continue successfully developing. We support each other in international organizations, and maintain economic cooperation. I am confident that as a result of today’s talks, a new impetus will be given to this area as well. We have a very good cooperation in the humanitarian field too.

Of course, today we exchanged views with you on the ongoing processes in the region. I am sure that such consultations are of pivotal importance. We can more closely collaborate in energy and transport sectors in the coming years. We have ideas about these issues. In this case, our relations will rise to a new stage and level.

In short, we share the same views on the development of our relations. I think that these relations have a great future. Serbia is a friendly country for us, and I am convinced that these friendly ties will be maintained.

I wish you a successful trip. I am confident that the agreements reached during the visit will further strengthen our successful cooperation in the years to come. Once again, welcome!

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President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said: 

-Dear Mr President.

Firstly, I congratulate you on the occasion of your confident victory in the presidential election and wish the people of Azerbaijan prosperity. I would also like to congratulate you on the centenary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

I assure you that Serbia is a friendly country for Azerbaijan. We feel at our closest friends' home here in Azerbaijan, Baku.

Mr President, I particularly attach great importance to your activities. You make great efforts to maintain the sovereignty and independence of your country. In this very tense situation, you lead your country on the path of prosperity. In addition, you have built very good relations with all the countries that support your policy. This is quite a difficult task. Serbia attaches great importance to this policy and respects it.

I think that we have enough work to do together. There is a lot of work to be done in Serbia regarding Azerbaijan’s interests. At the same time, there is a great deal of works we can do here. I think that as our economy grows stronger, Serbian companies can be attracted to Azerbaijan.

I would like to note that our economic growth for this year is 4.5 per cent. As far as I know, your non-oil sector has also grown by 3 per cent. I sincerely congratulate you on this occasion too.