President Aliyev: Azerbaijan, Moldova outline ways for further joint activities
Bilateral relations and dynamics of the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Moldova were on the focus of the leaders of the two countries on June 22, as President of Moldova Igor Dodon, paid an official visit to Baku.
A broad range of issues of mutual interests and issues, concerning regional cooperation of the two countries in the field of economy within the framework of development of new transport corridors and development of energy cooperation were discussed during the meetings.
Making a statement on the results of the visit Presidents of Azerbaijan and Moldova appraised the meeting as very significant in terms of further pushing forward the joint activities between the two countries.
President Ilham Aliyev in particular said that Azerbaijan and Moldova will continue to strengthen political relations and joint work at international organizations.
“I would also like to note that the official visit of President of Moldova Mr. Dodon to Azerbaijan is one of his first official visits, and we regard it as a sign of respect for Azerbaijan. Today we have also discussed very widely the issues related to trade and economic cooperation. There is good potential,” added the president.
The President voiced importance of increasing the volume of the bilateral trade turnover. “To do this, we expect that a joint intergovernmental commission, which hasn’t been meeting for a long time, to meet soon,” he said, adding that the meeting will discuss opportunities for expanding the mutual trade.
President Aliyev said that the commission will further discuss the investment opportunities, and infrastructure projects, in which companies from the two countries can jointly participate.
“In other words, these issues are also of great importance, because today’s level of trade and economic relations, of course, can’t satisfy us. We know that there is a much bigger potential,” noted the president. “Meanwhile, the cooperation in the field of energy and transport has great prospects. We realize many transport and energy projects in Azerbaijan, which have exceeded the borders of our country, and it would be interesting to cooperate with the Moldovan partners in this direction.”
“Today we also mulled the issues of interregional relations. We have already outlined here the concrete steps to structure or formalize interregional relations between various regions of our countries,” said President Aliyev.
In turn, President Dodon said that they discussed a wide range of issues, making a particular focus on economy, politics and social and humanitarian fields.
"There was a very long pause in the work of the intergovernmental commission as well. I have experience in managing an intergovernmental commission,” the president said, adding he headed the Moldovan side in the Azerbaijani-Moldovan intergovernmental commission for a few years.
The sides agreed to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental commission, which will be accompanied by a meeting of businessmen from the two countries in order to give a new impetus to our bilateral economic relations.
Dodon, in turn, invited President Aliyev to pay an official visit to Moldova.
“The last official visit was in 2005. I very much hope that next year the President of Azerbaijan will have an opportunity to visit Moldova, and within the framework of this visit we will already see what has been done specifically up to that moment,” he said.
Dodon expressed hope that a meeting of the two countries’ ministers will be held this year in order to consider directly the specific projects and steps to cooperate more actively.
“We certainly have positive dynamics in trade – there was a growth by more than 30 percent last year, but the volume of about $5 million is a too small volume. I hope that in the framework of the intergovernmental commission, we will also be able to arrange a visit of our entrepreneurs to Baku so that they could meet with their potential partners,” he added.