Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev and first lady Mrs. Mehriban Aliyeva were welcomed today by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe to his office.

President Aliyev and Mayor Delanoe had a conversation, during which they pointed to enhancement of the bilateral political, economic, cultural and other ties between Azerbaijan and France.

The Azerbaijan leader stressed the need to boost the Baku-Paris bilateral relations as well.

Ilham Aliyev invited Bertrand Delanoe to visit his country.

Then, President Ilham Aliyev met with representatives of the French public and diplomatic corps.

The meeting was opened by Bertrand Delanoe who said France was one of the first countries to recognize Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991.

Mr. Delanoe spoke of Azerbaijan’s nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev’s contributions to development of ties between France and Azerbaijan.

The Mayor also touched upon the work done in Azerbaijan to develop democracy.

Mayor Delanoe said France believes that Azerbaijan and Armenia will find ways to solve their conflict peacefully.

He said Azerbaijan leads the world in economic growth rate.

The Mayor also stressed the need to boost economic, cultural, humanitarian and other relations between Paris and Baku.

Mr. Delanoe noted Azerbaijan’s policy towards integration into Europe is welcomed, and stressed the country’s growing importance to Europe.

Then Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev took the floor.

“My state visit to France means development of the strengthening ties between the two countries. Our rapidly developing relations cover all fields. In political, economic, cultural and all other fields, we are partners in the true sense of the word, and not only our partnership, cooperation has a positive impact on the two countries’ bilateral relations but also on the processes taking place in the region”, he said.

“Azerbaijan is a member of the Council of Europe, and an active participator in the European Union’s New Neighborhood Policy, and, in general, our integration into the European space is going on very successfully”, the President noted.

“As a result of implementation of the memorandum of understanding on energy partnership between Azerbaijan and the European Union signed in the end of the last year, Azerbaijan will make its contribution to solving the European energy security problems”, Ilham Aliyev added.

“Our natural resources are, certainly, great wealth” serving improvement of well being of the Azerbaijan people. These resources, however, are exhaustible. What is even more valuable is that in Azerbaijan, representatives of any nation and any religion live as a single family. The ethnic and religious tolerance existing in Azerbaijan both enriches our country and can serve as an example for other regions“, the Azerbaijan leader said.

“In the next 20 years, oil revenues alone will make up $140 billion. We will use these funds to further develop and modernize Azerbaijan to turn it into a developed country”, he continued.

“But peace and security in our region is needed to reach these goals. Unfortunately, we have not yet managed to achieve it, and the biggest threat to the region is the Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan, which has been lasting for over 10 years. The results of this aggression are the policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijanians, occupation of 20% of our lands and over 1 million refugees and internally displaced people. We demand restoration of our territorial integrity. Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity is recognized and supported by the entire international community.

France is an active participator in the process of settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, and we thank the French leadership for that. I am hopeful that all the conflicts existing in the South Caucasus will be solved, all the separatists forces will give up their deeds, and, at last, peace will come to our region”, the President said.

Afterwards, President Ilham Aliyev had a warm conversation with representatives of the French public and diplomatic corps.