Astrakhan forum to put Russian-Azerbaijani ties on new level

The main goal of the Second Russian-Azerbaijani Interregional Forum in Astrakhan is to put ties between the two states to a new level, Ali Gasanov, head of the section of the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration for socio-political affairs, said at the forum, Trend reports.

He said that Azerbaijani National Leader heydar Aliyev always stressed on development of bilateral ties between the two countries.

The sides reached agreements on many aspects, including the Gabali radar, legal status of the Caspian Sea. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Azerbaijan in September 2010 and signed an agreement on the state border, it is the first such agreement for Azerbaijan.

Gasanov underlined that Russia and Azerbaijan are still improving relations, which can be seen from three visits of Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev. He added that the two states are cooperating with the UN, OSCE and other international organizations. Russia is a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group for settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The two countries cooperate in economy. Trade turnover did drop in 2009 during the global economic recession, but it started increasing in 2010 and reached $616 million, which exceeds the figures in 2009 by 78%. Over 17% of goods imported to Azerbaijan come from Russia.

Ali Gasanov said that humanitarian links have allow the two countries to develop ties in culture, medicine, education, sports, youth policy, establishment of joint information centers and realization of other projects.

Azerbaijan supports the special status of the Russian language, because over 160,000 Russian speakers live in Azerbaijan. Russian is used in 21 Azerbaijani schools, 335 schools have lessons on both Russian and Azerbaijani languages.

Azerbaijan publishes 50 newspapers and magazines in Russian. There is an office of the Moscow State University of Lomonosov in Baku, a Russian theater, offices of Russia’s leading information agencies. Azerbaijan has the largest Russian community.

Gasanov reminded that 70 Russian regions cooperate with Azerbaijan, some signed inter-government cooperation deals, including the Astrakhan Region, which cooperate in shipbuilding, transport, shipments of fish products.
Astrakhan is hosting the second Russian-Azerbaijani interregional forum called “Russia-Azerbaijan: to new achievements of interregional cooperation”.

The Russian non-government organization “Institute of Eurasian Studies” is the organizer of the forum. Over 200 people, including officials from the presidential administration, federal and regional authorities, business structures, non-government organizations and experts, are taking part in the forum.

One of the most prospect forms of cooperation of Caspian states may be economic cooperation, as it was noted at the Caspian summit in Baku, Vinokurov said. The political dialogue between Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev allows rapprochement of Russia and Azerbaijan on certain positions in the region.

Vinokurov stressed on economic cooperation, saying that trade turnover between the two states reached $1.9 billion in 2010 and is close to $2 billion. There are over 500 Russian companies in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijani businessmen are investing in Russian industry.

Vinokurov mentioned humanitarian cooperation. He said that Baku hosted the Russian-Azerbaijani public forum for humanitarian issues. The second forum will be held in September 2011.