Baku, October 14, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has accepted credentials of the newly appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Kazakhstan Serzhan Abdikarimov.

Ambassador Serzhan Abdikarimov reviewed a guard of honor.

Serzhan Abdikarimov presented his credentials to President Ilham Aliyev.

President Ilham Aliyev then spoke with the ambassador.

President Ilham Aliyev said:

- Dear Mr. Ambassador, dear guests.

I am glad to welcome you to Azerbaijan. I wish you successful work in our country. I am sure that you will make every effort to further advance and develop our relations. As you know, the relations between our countries are developing in a very positive manner.

The groundwork for the contemporary relations between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan was laid by the great leaders of our countries - Heydar Aliyev and Nursultan Nazarbayev. Their personal friendship back in the Soviet period and the mutual support during the years of independence laid the foundation for our relations, which have now reached a strategic level. Also, over the past 16 years, Nursultan Abishevich and I have advanced relations forward. Several reciprocal visits of the heads of state have been made. I recall that I paid one of my first official visits as newly-elected President in 2004 to Kazakhstan, more precisely, it was the third official visit. This emphasized the nature of our relationship. The month of October turned out to be very fruitful in terms of summits. This month, I met with President Tokayev twice at the Valdai Forum and at the CIS Summit. First contacts in this capacity are also very encouraging. President Tokayev and I have known each other for a long time and met at various international events in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. And today we are very pleased that Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev is visiting us and will participate in a meeting of the Cooperation Council of Turkic-speaking states as head of this important organization.

Our relations are time-tested and cover almost all spheres of life - economy, energy, transport and humanitarian spheres. Therefore, I am sure that the prospects for the development of relations will be very positive and we will continue to support each other in the international arena and implement joint projects in a bilateral format. I am sure that you will have a lot of work in Azerbaijan, because the agenda of our relations is quite extensive. Therefore, I wish you success. I am sure that you will feel at home in Azerbaijan. Welcome again!

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Ambassador Serzhan Abdikarimov said:

- Dear Mr. President!

First of all, I would like to convey to you the warm greetings of our Elbasy and President Tokayev. I will apply all my knowledge and efforts to further strengthen the comprehensive relations between our fraternal states and peoples, which have common Turkic roots, common religion, language, culture and spiritual connections. For my part, I would like to say that I was last in Baku during our chairmanship in the OSCE in 2010 and you received our delegation. I am impressed with the stunning progress Baku and Azerbaijan as a whole have achieved since then. All these reforms are inextricably linked to the development and modernization strategy of national leader Heydar Aliyevich Aliyev and are successfully continued under your wise leadership.

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The sides pointed to the activities of the Intergovernmental Commission and its last meeting held in Baku recently, discussed the further development of trade and economic ties between the two countries. President Ilham Aliyev expressed his gratitude for the greetings of the first President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, and President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, and asked the Ambassador to convey his greetings to Nursultan Nazarbayev and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.