PRESIDENT ILHAM ALIYEV AND CHANCELLOR GERHARD SCHROEDER HOLD PRESS CONFERENCE
Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder noted in particular that Azerbaijan-Germany political relations are on a high level, and expressed opinion that President Ilham Aliyev is very interested in building legal state in Azerbaijan, and is taking huge efforts to this end. The economic reforms carried out by Mr. Ilham Aliyev, according to him, bring amazingly good results. This fact gives a powerful impetus to economic development, and the whole Azerbaijani people will benefit from this, he said.
Touching on political issues, Mr. Schroeder noted that Germany had always recognized and supported and would continue to support territorial integrity of Azerbaijan. He expressed the parties’ common opinion that the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be settled peacefully, adding that his country would make its contribution to the process through the OSCE Minsk Group.
The Chancellor also dwelt on the signing the contract on purchasing four airbuses describing this fact as a manifestation of the developing economic cooperation between the two countries in the light of the EU New Neighborhood Policy, and the activities of the German companies operating in Azerbaijan. He advised that during the meeting the parties came to a verbal agreement to host in Berlin a conference on investment opportunities in Azerbaijan. Mr. Schroeder finally expressed confidence that both sides would benefit from this visit by the Azerbaijani President.
President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, for his part, expressed great satisfaction with the level his first official visit to Germany, and spoke of his meetings with President and Federal Chancellor of Germany. The Head of State advised that a wide range of issues related to Azerbaijan-Germany relations had been discussed during these meetings. This visit will indeed promote expanding the cooperation between the two countries in all spheres. Today we have signed the contract on purchasing airbuses, and Mr. Chancellor said this contract is very important for both sides. I am confident that from now on our relations with Europe will be developed even rapidly, he in particular said.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, President Ilham Aliyev expressed his deep satisfaction with the Germany’s position concerning the issue. He also expressed hope that the conflict would be shortly solved on the base of the principle of territorial integrity, which is completely supported and honored by the German Government.
The Azerbaijani leader finally noted that there is very good foundation for deepening the bilateral relations and expressed confidence that the cooperation would be successfully developed in all spheres.
Then, President of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev and Federal Chancellor of Germany Gerhard Schroeder responded to questions from local and Azerbaijani journalists.
Other news in this section
