An official reception was given on behalf of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for his visiting Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin at Gulistan Palace on 21February. The two leaders made remarks at the reception.

President Ilham Aliyev said that it was since the first visit by Vladimir Putin to Azerbaijan in the beginning of 2001 that all the misunderstandings between the two countries have been removed and problems settled. “Our views fully coincide on the problem of the Caspian, regional security, security in the Caucasus,” he said. The Azerbaijani leader noted that no development is possible without peace and stability that is the common interest of both countries.

“Azerbaijan has experienced hard times in its history, and is still suffering from occupation of the part of its lands. We are hopeful that Russia, as our neighbor, as a great power and a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk group on settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, will continue to make efforts towards peaceful resolution of the conflict. We are not demanding anything extraordinary, anything exceeding the scope of the international law or human logic. All we are demanding is that our lands be freed from the occupation, and that the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh be settled only and only on the base of the principles of the international law. Then our refugees will return to their homes, and peace will be insured in the region,” President Ilham Aliyev said.

Touching on economic relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, the Azerbaijani leader noted that the Russian national exhibition opened today had demonstrated once again the potential of Russian manufacturers. “We are hopeful that our ties in this direction will be actively developing… The increasing turnover between our countries is the best evidence of our successfully developing economic relations,” he said.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin, for his part, that since the post-war period the relations between the two countries have been on an unprecedented level. In this connection, he pointed out the role of Heydar Aliyev in reaching such a high level. “It was him who safeguarded the chance for us to return to normal interstate relationship,” he said. President Putin added that what had been done by father today is being continued by his son. “We can see, and we are glad of the way and rate Azerbaijan is now developing. The GDP growth rate is one of the world’s highest. It is a matter of envy for Russia,” he said.

The Russian leader also pointed out that his country would support in every possible way the bilateral economic development rate.

Touching upon the Nagorno-Karabakh problem, Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that solution can be found in case of good will and mediation efforts by Russia and other countries involved in the settlement. “We will continue to create conditions for joint work to find solutions that both states need,” he said.

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Present at the reception were Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Artur Rasizade, Speaker of the Milli Majlis Ogtay Asadov and Chief of the Presidential Administration Ramiz Mehdiyev.