Baku, June 27, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells.

Alice Wells thanked for Azerbaijan`s hosting a meeting of the International Contact Group on Afghanistan, stressing great importance of the event.

The head of state hailed Alice Wells` participation in the meeting.

Alice Wells said she is happy to visit Azerbaijan shortly after historic events such as recent celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic and inauguration of Shahdeniz-2 project. Recalling US President Donald Trump’s congratulatory letters addressed to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, she extended her own congratulations as well.

The head of state thanked for the letters sent by the US President on the occasion of those two important events and for his warm words about Azerbaijan and bilateral relations. President Ilham Aliyev described this as yet another indicative of strategic importance of relations between the two countries and noted that Azerbaijan highly appreciates the US President`s attitude towards the country. At the same time, President Ilham Aliyev stressed the importance of support provided by the US government to the implementation of Azerbaijan’s huge energy projects, and said Azerbaijan has always felt this support in the realization of different energy projects, including Southern Gas Corridor which is of huge significance.

The head of state noted that Azerbaijan provides support to the Afghan government both directly and within international efforts, contributes to NATO’s Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan and that the number of Azerbaijani servicemen in this mission increased. “Azerbaijan is ready to continue to increase the number of its servicemen.” President Ilham Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan gives huge logistic support to Afghanistan, in particular after the inauguration of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railroad. President Ilham Aliyev said the Afghan government highly appreciates all these efforts.

The Azerbaijani President noted that the meeting of the International Contact Group on Afghanistan will once again confirm this and greatly contribute to the stabilization of situation in Afghanistan.

Alice Wells said the meeting with the Azerbaijani President is a good opportunity for exchanging ideas on Afghanistan-related issues. She said the US highly appreciates Azerbaijan’s constant support to Afghanistan and its people as well as an increase in the number of Azerbaijani servicemen in the Resolute Support Mission.

During the conversation, the sides hailed successful development of Azerbaijan-US bilateral ties in the areas of politics, economy, energy and security, and expressed their confidence in further expansion of the relations.