President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili, who is on a visit to the country.

Welcoming the Georgian Prime Minister, President Ilham Aliyev said:

-Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I am glad to see you. Welcome to Azerbaijan. I am glad to see you again in our country. We already are meeting second time this year, also we had several telephone conversations discussing important issues of our bilateral relations. Today we surely continue our dialogue. Political dialogue between two brotherly countries has always been very active and continues to be active now. We closely cooperate in issues related to foreign policy, especially in our region with the new challenges, and new opportunities. Of course strengthening political ties between our countries is important not only for our people, but also for the whole region. I looked at some data and saw that we have good progress in economic development. Trade turnover is growing. Today there will be a meeting of intergovernmental commission which I am sure will cover many important areas, review what has been done and plan our future steps. We are very encouraged by the very positive investment climate in your country, economic reforms which allow you to resolve many social and economic issues. Also, I would like to congratulate your government with great success in developing Georgia in all areas. We as friends and brothers are happy to see this development and wish you personally and your government every success in new endeavors. Of course, today we will also talk about traditional areas of our cooperation, like oil and gas, electric energy, transportation. So, these projects have already been implemented. We now enjoy the benefit of these projects which created a very special format of cooperation between our countries, because these projects are important not only for our countries but for many more countries in the Eurasia region. So, I am sure that today’s visit will also give a new boost to our cooperation and I want to express gratitude for accepting my invitation and visiting us. You are welcome once again.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said:

-Mr. President, thank you very much, for inviting us. It’s a great pleasure to be here in Baku. Thank you very much for your warm welcoming and hospitality. It’s a great opportunity to speak about our bilateral relationship which is excellent. We are friends and brothers as you mentioned. We will also be holding 8th economic commission meeting today, and we will discuss our bilateral relationship which is developing. Georgia is of course, interested in strengthening our bilateral ties-political, economic, cultural and so on. Also we are interested in a peace and stability in the region. This will be a foundation for a robust economic development. This is my second visit already this year. As you mentioned Mr. President, we spoke many times already, several telephone conversations. I am sure we will discuss today many issues which are related to our future. I am sure that this would be another fruitful meeting and I want to thank you again.

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President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili then had a working dinner.