Saint Petersburg, 4 June (AZERTAC). Azerbaijan`s President Ilham Aliyev and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have today met here at the Konstantinov Palace.

Russian leader DMITRY MEDVEDEV said:

- Esteemed Ilham Heydarovich, I welcome you to Petersburg. Unfortunately, the weather has let us down, but I`m very pleased to have you here.

We now have such a busy time: we have a forum which opens up additional opportunities for us to discuss bilateral relations, regional problems. We do have a lot of critical topics to discuss - consequences of the world`s financial and economic crisis, energy security - the issue of great importance to our countries - and we also have very interesting joint projects. What we must think about is to make the level of our trade, that we have managed to increase recently, to depend, somehow, on our bilateral relations and prevent its falling amid the changes in the world economy.

Bilateral humanitarian projects are also very important. You place a particular emphasis on humanitarian projects, particularly those related to the Russian language. We appreciate this very much, thank you. We, surely, also have other projects. I`m truly pleased to see you in Petersburg.

President ILHAM ALIYEV: Thank you Dmitry Anatolyevich. Thank you for the invitation. I`m very pleased to have another opportunity to meet you and continue our discussions, which have a very broad agenda.

Our meetings have become regular and this reflects the level of development of relationship between our countries. We are satisfied with the development of our countries` relations -like you have mentioned - in the political and economic fields. I believe our trade will not suffer much amid the crisis.

As for our relations in the humanitarian field, I think they can be exemplary. We have done a lot, and we have many plans for future.

We have a very broad agenda and, as usually, a lot of topics to discuss: regional issues, in particular security, and energy cooperation, which today is extremely critical. And, of course, continuing our discussions and outlining ways for further development is very important. Despite the crisis, both Russia and Azerbaijan prove that they can develop and live at the cost of their own resources, and this is also important. I believe that in the future our cooperation will be as constructive, predictable and friendly as it has been. Thank you once again for the invitation.

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