The final declaration has been signed in Baku following the trilateral meeting among Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
Among other things the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran agreed to continue a comprehensive development of equal and mutually beneficial cooperation, aimed at deepening and broadening the political dialogue at various levels across the entire spectrum of issues of mutual interest. This includes the development of a trilateral format of cooperation in culture, tourism and business, issues of youth exchanges, consular and customs issues, promoting relations between the regions. The signatories stressed the importance of further simplification of the visa regime, as well as fighting terrorism, extremism, transnational organized crime, illegal arms, narcotics and human trafficking and crimes in the sphere of information and communication technologies, Trend reports.
The sides also decided to establish relevant working groups of mutual interest in the areas of cooperation.
After signing the Declaration, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani proposed to hold the next summit in Iran, and thanked him for the proposal.
In addition, the parties will take effective measures in the development of the transport and communication infrastructure in order to extend the existing capabilities of the North-South transport corridor. After that it will be possible to continue mutually beneficial cooperation in order to promote the implementation of new projects connecting the railways and improving the efficiency of the North-South corridor.
"Azerbaijan and Iran are Russia’s good neighbors and important partners,’’ Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a summit with the leaders of the three countries in Baku.
"We have rich experience of successful cooperation with each other. Today we open a new page in our relations, giving a start to cooperation in a trilateral format,’’ Putin said.
"This is a historic event. A new format of cooperation is being implemented between the three countries. I am thankful to President Vladimir Putin and President Hassan Rouhani for accepting my invitation and participating in the summit. I should note that in April this year a meeting of Foreign ministers of the three countries took place in Baku on the initiative of Azerbaijan. I am confident that today's summit will give a new impetus to regional cooperation. Our peoples have been living side by side for centuries and are tied by common history and geography. Russia, Iran and Azerbaijan have close ties of friendship. In recent years, these ties have developed and reached a level of strategic partnership,’’ President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev noted, saying that Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia are successfully cooperating within different international organizations. The countries have always supported each other in the UN and other organizations.
