Prime Minister Ilham Aliyev was welcomed at the Belbek airport of Sevastopol city by the Mayor of the city Leonid Junko, First Deputes Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Arthur Rasizadeh and Abbas Abbasov, Ambassadors of Azerbaijan to Russia and Ukraine Ramiz Rizayev and Talat Aliyev and other officials. Children dressed in national costumes welcomed Prime Minister by bread and salt.

Prime Minister passed in front of the guard of honor and started for his residence in the Yuzhnaya health center in Yalta.

MEETING OF PRIME MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC ILHAM ALIYEV WITH PRESIDENT OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION VLADIMIR PUTIN

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.

MEETING OF PRIME MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC ILHAM ALIYEV WITH PRESIDENT OF KAZAKHSTAN NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV

A one-on-one meeting between Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev and President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev was held on September 18. The Kazakh President sincerely welcomed the Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan at his mansion-house. During the meeting, the parties expressed satisfaction with the today’s level of the relations between the two countries, and stressed the necessity to expand co-operation concerning realization of oil projects. President Nursultan Nazarbayev asked the Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev to convey his greetings to President Heydar Aliyev and wished him speedy recovery and return to Motherland.Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev exdended greetings and best wishes from President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev to the Kazakh President.During the conversation, the parties have held thorough exchange of views on the issues of mutual interest.

MEETING OF PRIME MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC ILHAM ALIYEV WITH PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE LEONID KUCHMA

A one-on-one meeting between Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev and President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma was held at the Ukrainian President’s mansion-house “Zarya” on September 18. President Leonid Kuchma sincerely and warmly welcomed Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev at his mansion-house.At the beginning of the meeting, which has held in the atmosphere of sincerity, the Head of Ukraine was curious about President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev’s health situation, and wished him speedy recovery and return to Motherland. President Leonid Kuchma congratulated Ilham Aliyev on his appointment to the high post and wished him every success, as well. Expressing his gratitude to the Head of Ukrainian State for the sincere meeting and kind words, Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev conveyed to him greetings and best wishes from Azerbaijan President Heydar Aliyev.During the meeting, the parties focused on the prospects of Ukraine-Azerbaijan relations’ development and stressed the necessity of widening bilateral co-operation in the framework of GUUAM and other organizations.

MEETING OF PRIME MINISTER OF AZERBAIJAN REPUBLIC ILHAM ALIYEV WITH PRESIDENT OF GEORGIA EDUARD SHEVARDNADZE

A one-on-one meeting between Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev and President of Georgia Eduard Shevardnadze was held on September 18. The Georgian President sincerely and warmly welcomed Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev at his mansion-house.During the meeting held in a warm atmosphere, Mr. Eduard Shevardnadze was curious about President of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev’s state of health wishing him speedy recovery and return to Motherland soon. Thanking the Georgian President, Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev conveyed to him greetings and best wishes from the Azerbaijan leader.In the brief statements for media Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev and President Eduard Shevardnadze have made after the meeting, they expressed satisfaction with the level of relations between the two friendly countries. President Shevardnadze told journalists he had invited Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to pay a visit to Georgia. Prime-Minister Ilham Aliyev stressed the necessity to continue the positive co-operation experience of the two countries. He said today’s Azerbaijan and Georgia is the work of the two world scale political figures Heydar Aliyev and Eduard Shevardnadze; the history has evaluated their activities and will evaluate them in the future.

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On September 18, an informal reception was given in honor of the heads of CIS stats on behalf of President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma at his mansion-house “Zarya” in Yalta. Prime-Minister of Azerbaijan Republic Ilham Aliyev attended the reception.