Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan Vladimir Putin and Ilham Aliyev started negotiations in Astana. The meeting is taking place on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia.
At the beginning of the meeting, Putin stressed that he regularly meets with Ilham Aliyev, "and there is always something to talk about". The head of state drew attention to "quite a large amount of interaction in very different areas".
"Russia remains one of the leading trade and economic partners of Azerbaijan, the trade turnover is growing, last year it grew by about 14%, this year for the first 7 months it is more than 7% more. Our economic operators have invested $4,5 billion in the Azerbaijani economy. The co-chairs of the intergovernmental commissions meet regularly, the work is proceeding according to the plan you proposed, designed up to 2024 inclusive, on a number of promising interesting projects", the President of the Russian Federation said.
"Certainly, we always keep in mind the issues related to the settlement of the situation in the region. I hope we will use this opportunity to talk about all these issues again and compare watches", the Russian leader said.
As Yuriy Ushakov, an aide to the Russian leader, said the day before, the heads of state would discuss not only cooperation, but also Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. According to him, Russia plans to propose Armenia and Azerbaijan to hold another trilateral summit.
