Baku, August 22, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev have made press statements.

The President of Azerbaijan made the statement first.

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear Shavkat Miromonovich, dear guests, dear friends!

Once again, Shavkat Miromonovich, I sincerely welcome you to Azerbaijan. You are welcome! We highly appreciate the fact that you are paying your first state visit to Azerbaijan after being elected President of Uzbekistan. We do appreciate that. This is a sign of our brotherhood, our friendship, and your attitude towards our country and our people. The fraternal people of Uzbekistan have again placed great confidence in you, have once again recognized your efforts for the development of Uzbekistan. Under your leadership, the fraternal country is successfully moving along the path of creation. I have had the opportunity to repeatedly see for myself the great transformations that are under way in Uzbekistan under your leadership, and they serve the development of your country, the strengthening of its potential and defense capability, as well as the enhancement of its authority in international affairs.

Last year, I visited Uzbekistan three times on a state visit and as part of international events. I visited Tashkent, Samarkand and Khiva, and saw again with my own eyes the transformations and results of the reforms you are implementing. Therefore, your victory in the elections was completely natural, and the fraternal people of Uzbekistan have made the only right choice.

The fact that you are paying your first state visit to Azerbaijan after the election is also a great honor for us. You are showing us great respect.

We have discussed a wide range of issues during our negotiations today. I can say one thing: our communication today took more than three hours. Both in our one-on-one meeting and during the meeting with the participation of members of delegations, all these successes in strengthening our interaction were analyzed in detail and ways of developing the future of our relations in all areas were discussed and determined – from joint activities on international platforms, our interaction within the framework of international organizations up until issues of energy, transport, economic interaction, the humanitarian sphere. In other words, within the framework of our meetings and negotiations, we have essentially determined the future development of our relations. The results that have already been achieved show that we are on the right track.

What was reported to us by members of the delegations as part of what we expect in the next two or three years I think indicates that we have raised the relations between our countries to the highest level. And it is no coincidence that one of the documents signed today is a document on the establishment of the Supreme Interstate Council. This is a high level of relations and an indicator of both fraternal relations between our countries and of the fact that the agenda is quite extensive.

Issues related to industrial cooperation have also been analyzed in great detail. Last month, a regular meeting of the intergovernmental commission was held in Shusha, which analyzed in detail the entire range of our interaction. Three are good prospects in the energy sector. Our energy companies closely cooperate with each other. In the transport and logistical sector, we are observing an increase in cargo traffic, and most importantly, an increase in the potential for cooperation in this direction. Today we discussed issues that will predetermine our successful cooperation in all areas for many years to come.

This month, the Days of Culture of Uzbekistan were held in Azerbaijan with great success, and once again, Azerbaijani viewers were further convinced of the high skill and talent of representatives of your fraternal people. We agreed that such events should be held regularly, because the basis of our interaction is precisely the huge cultural layer.

The fraternal relations between our peoples have a centuries-old history, and throughout the entire period of friendship and brotherhood, we have always been close to each other and supported each other.

Tomorrow we will participate in the opening of a school Shavkat Miromonovich has donated to Azerbaijan on his personal initiative. This is the first gift of a foreign state in the restoration of Karabakh, and we highly appreciate this gesture of brotherhood, solidarity and support – not to mention the fact that this school is actually a palace of education. In May, while visiting Fuzuli, I got acquainted with the construction and saw with my own eyes the scale of the fraternal gift from Uzbekistan. The school bears the name of the great son of the Uzbek people, Mirzo Ulugbek, and I am sure that it will not only be a center of education, but also a center of our friendship and brotherhood.

A few days ago, or to be exact, four days ago, first residents of the city of Fuzuli, former refugees, returned to their native lands, and in the near future, less than a month later, children will start going to the school which was donated by our brothers from Uzbekistan.

In other words, even what I am talking about now speaks volumes of the nature of our relations. To talk about all the areas of cooperation we discussed today, it will probably take at least three more hours. Therefore, I think that already in the process of communication, including the communication with the media, representatives of our countries will share their impressions both today and in the future. And also the general public of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan will see the results of today's negotiations in the practical implementation of projects both in Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. And I am sure that the joint investment fund, which we created some time ago with an authorized capital of $500 million, will very quickly master this amount and we will even need to increase the capital. All this indicates again that we are on the right track, that everything the presidents have outlined is being carried out, and, as we agreed with Shavkat Miromonovich several years ago, we regularly monitor the implementation of all these instructions. This is one of the keys to success.

Once again, dear Shavkat Miromonovich, I would like to welcome you, thank you once again for accepting my invitation and visiting Azerbaijan. We met in Baku in March, at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit, and I am planning on visiting Uzbekistan before the end of the year. So, we will meet regularly and inform the public of our countries about new successes. Thank you.

x x x

Then, the President of Uzbekistan made the statement.

Statement by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev

- Dear Ilham Heydarovich,

First of all, I sincerely want to express my gratitude for the invitation to visit our brotherly country – Azerbaijan. You have correctly noted, of course, the choice and strategy of our political direction. Azerbaijan is one of the closest countries to us, and our relations have reached a completely new level. I am paying my first official visit here because we are actually two close nations, two close countries, and our personal relations have raised our relations to a completely new level. Today the people of both Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan are proud of these relations and see the results of our ties, the results of our visits. The foreign policy vector of Uzbekistan today is aimed at actually filling our program with content.

We, as close neighbors and close countries, are always proud and rejoice in the successes of Azerbaijan and the wise policy you are implementing. In fact, we in Uzbekistan are watching and are proud of the authority of Azerbaijan in the international arena, the achievements of Azerbaijan in all directions in general in recent years. So, we, as close neighbors, are very happy and wish you success. Our visit today is a continuation of our dialogue with you – multiple and long-term dialogues we are planning with you. In each of our meetings and in all our negotiations, as you have already noted, there is a common vision of today's challenges. And they are very serious. We are finding common ground, so that these challenges cause the least losses for our economies, the least losses for our peoples, the least losses in general for our regions too.

So I would like to take this opportunity to say to the respected representatives of the media what Ilham Heydarovich has just said. In fact, on all issues, I would like to sincerely tell you – sincerely, confidentially, scrupulously. Representatives of the media are present here, they know that we don’t discuss this for a long time and scrupulously with too many countries, because behind every word we say, behind every direction – be it in politics, in the economic sphere, in the transport sphere, the humanitarian component, the cultural and humanitarian component – there are our people, our nations. They see, they strive, they rejoice. And in each direction we find very good prospects.

If it weren’t for time constraints, as Ilham Heydarovich said, we would tell you about all the projects. But, I think we will still have many more meetings, and we will tell you. These are very serious projects to ensure a different level of relations, a different level of industrial localization, a different level of transport logistics, because today the transport component in general is a very serious component for us, for Uzbekistan. And we are determining our directions together with the nearest country - Azerbaijan. I think that this is the only right decision. If we do everything we agreed on today, they will be implemented, there will be success both for the economy of Uzbekistan and for the economy of Azerbaijan.

What Ilham Heydarovich said: the Supreme Interstate Council we have created is the highest level of trust and the highest level of continuation of those strategic directions we have agreed on. So, I think, I am very satisfied with my first visit after being elected the President of Uzbekistan. I think that the people of Uzbekistan also see the vector of our direction today. It gives us an assessment, of course. What assessment? Very positive, because we have a lot of directions, and all of these directions correspond to our strategy adopted until 2030. They are committed to our strategy. In this regard, Ilham Heydarovich and I have adopted extraordinary decisions on many additional issues that will help accelerate these directions and accelerate our plans. And today, as Ilham Heydarovich said, I also want the media to know that a break between the Days of Culture of Uzbekistan in Azerbaijan - I don’t want to talk about numbers - but it was quite high. I think, many of you know this figure. You know, after this, more than 200 our representatives of culture, art, intelligentsia have a completely different mood now, because they have seen how much Azerbaijan has been developing under the leadership of Ilham Heydarovich in recent years and how problems are being resolved, how much we have in common, how close our historical roots are. In this regard, I think, this is the beginning of a very big surge in our cultural and humanitarian cooperation. Today we agreed with Ilham Heydarovich that we will prepare a separate program of our communication for each year. The people should know that we will have such a cultural exchange this year. I want to tell you that we have never had such a thing before.

On transport. If we talk about aviation, we have 15 flights a week, and we agreed to increase it even more. What does this mean? When we travel more, we get to know each other, we meet and become even closer.

I want to say again that I am satisfied and very pleased that Ilham Heydarovich and I are on the same wave, as they say in your language. We, as always, firmly agreed and gave our team members, namely the members of delegations, instructions that control will be very rigorous. If there is no such control or if there is insufficient control, or we do not follow up, we would not have had such results as we do today. And a little later we will reach a completely new qualitative level in all directions.

Once again, I am very pleased with our meeting today. I am quite satisfied. I wish we could meet our Azerbaijani friends more frequently. Our meetings with the respected Ilham Heydarovich will only give a positive effect to our agreements, and they will be implemented. For my part, I want to say – the media should know – that I am always pleased with each of our meetings, because they produce tremendous results.

Some time will pass, Ilham Heydarovich, and we will not need translators or we will not need to speak in two languages here. I think we have common roots and we will speak common languages to each other.

Ilham Heydarovich, I want to sincerely tell you that I understand him perfectly well when he speaks Azerbaijani, and Ilham Heydarovich tells me that when I speak in Uzbek, he says at these summits: “I fully understand you.” So this says a lot. We should know, appreciate, love and promote this.