A one-on-one meeting between and President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin was held at the Russian head of state’s mansion-house on September 18. Warmly greeting Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev President Vladimir Putin said: - Mr. Prime-Minister, it gives me great pleasure to see You again, and in the new capacity. First of all I want to congratulate You on the appointment to this high position. I am sure that it is a happy choice. Especially as we really have something to present to the two countries’ people. I have just looked through the figures: for merely five months of this year mutual commodity turnover has increased by 20 percent against 70 percent for the whole last year. The dynamic is very good, and I “amuse myself” with the hope that this is also the result of our joint efforts with the President of Azerbaijan. I want to ask you to convey my best wishes to the President as soon as possible; we hope he will recover, everything will be all right. We are aware of the developing pre-election campaign in Azerbaijan. But I want to express hope that the domestic political processes will not have negative effect on the rate of development of the bilateral relations, it will be preserved.” ILHAM ALIYEV: Thank you very much, Mr. President for the warm words. First of all, I would like to comply with a request of our President to extend to You his greetings, kindest wishes for success in Your activity. We also are very pleased that relations between our countries are dynamically developing in all spheres; very good interaction exists in political sphere as well. In economic one, as You have mentioned rash growth of commodity turnover is observed, a plenty of mutually beneficial project are being implemented. But I must say that the key impetus to such development of our relations have been given after Your visit to Azerbaijan. You now the Russian President’s visit to Azerbaijan was long-expected, and when you made the appropriate decision, we have felt the very speedy intensification of our relations in all areas right away. Our President would state Russia is a strategic partner to Azerbaijan. This policy is being carried out today, and will be done in the future. We, in our turn, will do our best for achieving new successes at every level of the interstate relations to bring benefit to our countries and people. Taking this chance, I also want to express to You my personal gratitude for the concern you have shown about the President of Azerbaijan while he was undergoing treatment. People in Azerbaijan highly value and will always remember that. VLADIMIR PUTIN: I think one should not thank for such things. It is sacred. You may count on our help not only regarding this but any other issues. And if these visits are so useful, I want to invite You to Moscow for a working official visit, You will certainly agree its format with the Russian Government. I repeat, despite all the pre-election events, we would like very much rate of the relations development not to decline, and we have much to talk in many spheres. So, I think it would be appropriate. Thank you. The meeting was continued in one-on-one format, during which the parties have held thorough opinions exchange on the issues of mutual interest.