The Leningrad Region is ready to significantly expand ties with the Republic of Azerbaijan in the trade, economic, scientific, technical and cultural spheres, the Governor Alexander Drozdenko said at a meeting with the Azerbaijan's Consul General in St. Petersburg Sultan Gasimov. The parties discussed the preparation of the agreement on cooperation between the Government of the Leningrad Region and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and agreed to strengthen the traditionally warm and friendly relations with the help of "people's diplomacy".
The governor noted the active participation of the representatives of the Azerbaijani diaspora in public projects and events of the cultural life of the region, interest in expanding contacts in the spheres of culture and social relations. "We see great potential for expanding economic cooperation," Alexander Drozdenko said, expressing the region's readiness to provide logistical support to the promotion of Azerbaijani goods to major Russian and European markets.
Azerbaijan's Consul General in St. Petersburg said that the most important task is to preserve and develop ties in the humanitarian and cultural sphere, maintain friendly and good-neighborly relations in the spirit of strategic partnership. Sultan Gasimov noted the importance of the format of the Russian-Azerbaijani intergovernmental commission and invited the delegation of the Leningrad region to visit Azerbaijan this year.
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Representatives of the Azerbaijani national and cultural associations, including the dance ensemble 'Chinar', are regular participants of public projects on the territory of the Leningrad region, such as the interregional festivals 'Russia - Consonance of Cultures', 'Etnovesna', the annual regional holiday of Novruz and others. In December 2010, on the initiative of the Representative Office of the Heydar Aliyev Foundation in Russia and the Consulate General of the Republic of Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg, a memorial stele to Azerbaijani soldiers who died in battles for Leningrad in 1941-1944 was installed in the International Memory Alley of the Nevsky Piglet memorial in the Kirov district of the Leningrad region. Since December 2016, the interactive museum of Azerbaijani culture, which hold meetings of the Council of Azerbaijani Youth, has been opened in the House of Friendship of the Leningrad Region.
