STATEMENT BY PRESIDENT OF AZERBAIJAN ILHAM ALIYEV
Esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen,
I would like again to greet with all my heart the President of Ukraine Viktor Andreevich Yuschenko and all members of the delegation in Azerbaijan.
The today’s visit is a manifestation of the friendly relations between our two countries. Today, we have had a very contentful and detailed talk about various aspects of our bilateral relations; we have analyzed these relations, spoke of their history, as well as – it is may be the most important thing – we have discussed the prospects of our cooperation, that we consider as very important and having huge potential.
We have considered a wide rage of issues concerning Azerbaijan-Ukraine bilateral relations, including our joint participation in various international organizations; and we share common stance on all the issues in hand.
We see Ukraine as a friendly country, an important partner for Azerbaijan, and hope the documents that have been signed today, agreements we have reached today, will serve development of our relations in all areas.
We discussed the issues of cooperation in energy sector, and we have given concrete orders to the relevant bodies to start concrete work on a number of aspects, that could be mutually beneficial; and we are considering different ways to improve this cooperation. Azerbaijan is turning into a large producer and supplier of energy resources to the world markets, and cooperation with Ukraine is very important to us. We also focused on the cooperation in transport, agricultural and humanitarian fields; and we have the high level of mutual understanding on all of these issues.
We are very glad that the Azerbaijani diaspora in Ukraine and Ukrainians living in our country are very integrated into their societies, and feeling quite comfortable. This is also an indicator of both the level of bilateral relations and tolerance of our societies. It is a very important aspect of the bilateral relations.
We discussed development of economic relations as a whole, taking into account the increasing potential of Ukraine and Azerbaijan. We believe the potentiality of these relations is far from being exhausted despite the very high rates of trade between our countries, and I am sure this rate will be steady, am convinced there are still reserves that have to be involved for the economic relations between our countries to be more intensive, more diversified and complete.
Successful implementation of economic reforms in Azerbaijan has led to rapid economic growth in the country. Last year, out economy grew 26%. Over the six months of this year, GDP grew 36% and industrial production 41%, as over the last two years and a half, 435 thousand new jobs have been created in Azerbaijan.
All this reaffirms that economic potential is growing with increasing possibilities for mutually beneficial trade. Ukraine produces a number of industrial products that are in great demand in our country. We are cooperating in this direction, but I hope the work of the intergovernmental commission, active contacts at the level of ministers, departments, and may be even the presidents – it is very important that the decision on the permanent consultative format of relations at such levels – all this I think will be a good impulse for more active economic relations.
In terms of cooperation in regional issues, we have complete mutual understanding. Together with esteemed President Viktor Andreevich Yuschenko, we also touched on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and I outlined to the President how we see the resolution of this problem, our stance.
We have always been thankful for Ukraine’s understanding of Azerbaijan’s position, and support we feel form the country in the international arena. In other words, not a single issue of bilateral relations remained aloof for a few hours of our intensive talks. We discussed them in detail in a warm and friendly atmosphere. I am hopeful that the visit by the Ukrainian President to our country, and all that concerns this visit – the documents signed and our agreements – will serve as a very important factor to further success in development of our relations.
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