President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in Astana.

Greeting, the President of Azerbaijan, President Vladimir Putin said: Dear Ilham Heydar oglu, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to meet with you on the sidelines of today's event. We meet on a regular basis and there is always something to talk about. There is a fairly large amount of interaction in very different areas between our countries. Russia continues to be one of Azerbaijan’s leading trade and economic partners. Our trade is growing. Last year it grew by 14 percent, I think, and in the first seven months of this year it has grown by more than 7 percent. Our economic operators have invested $4.5 billion in the Azerbaijani economy. The co-chairs of the intergovernmental commission meet on a regular basis. Work is proceeding according to the plan you proposed, which is calculated until 2024 inclusive and covers a number of promising and interesting projects you proposed. Naturally, we always keep issues related to the settlement of the situation in the region in the spotlight. I hope we will use this opportunity to discuss all these issues once again and make sure we are on the same page.

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President Ilham Aliyev said: I am very pleased to see you again, Vladimir Vladimirovich. You are absolutely right that our meetings are of regular nature – just recently in St. Petersburg, prior to that in Samarkand last month. Our relations are developing so dynamically that there is always a need, as you said, to synchronize watches on many issues. We are very pleased with the way relations between our countries are developing. I think they have reached the highest level, the level of allied cooperation, and we are making very active progress on many issues. You have noted, and I would like to confirm, that there is an increase in trade and economic ties. The projects we have now outlined and agreed upon at previous meetings will allow us the opportunity to further increase trade. However, there are also issues related to transport, energy and cooperation in the humanitarian sphere. We are seeing a positive momentum in all areas. Of course, at every meeting we do not bypass issues of our region, issues of security and the achievement of peace in the region. We will also talk about this today. We are committed to long-term peace. For our part, we believe that we have proposed sufficiently constructive theses for peace to be finally achieved.

So thank you again for this opportunity to see you. I am sure that this meeting will also be very productive. Thank you.

President Vladimir Putin: Thank you