Official reception was organized in honor of Traian Băsescu

The official reception is offered by President Ilham Aliyev in honor of the President of Romania Traian Băsescu in the framework of his official visit to our country.

Delivering his speech at the reception, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said:

- Dear Mister President:

Dear guests:

Ladies and gentlemen:

First of all, Mister President, I greet you and the delegation led by you sincerely once again in Azerbaijan and extend my welcome.

Mister President, this is your fifth visit to Azerbaijan in last five years. In my turn, I visited Romania four times during this period of time. Such regular visits demonstrate the dynamic development of relations between our countries. Our relations are the relations of genuine friendship and partnership.

It is not by accident that national leader Heydar Aliyev has made his first visit indeed to Romania among Eastern European countries after his election as the President of independent Azerbaijan and our country opened its first embassy in this region namely in Romania. Me too, as the President, I made my first visit to Romania among the countries of Eastern Europe.

Next year we will celebrate the twentieth anniversary of establishing our diplomatic relations. I do hope that we will approach this remarkable date with new achievements in various fields of the co-operation between Romania and Azerbaijan.

Insofar over 50 documents which ensure the development of ties between our countries were signed by both sides. Joint Declaration on Agreement on Establishing Strategic Partnership signed in the framework of my last visit to Romania and Joint Action Plan on Implementation of Strategic Partnership signed this time are the logical result of the work done to strengthen our bilateral relations. Our countries co-operate closely within international organizations. We are very satisfied of our co-operation in the framework of UN, OSCE, the Council of Europe, Black Sea Economic Organization and in GUAM format. Our efforts paid for the restoration of Great Silk Way and the creation of Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor bring us even closer.

The relationship with the European Union and Euro Atlantic structures takes an important place in foreign policy of Azerbaijan. Energy co-operation is one of main areas of our relations with the European Union. Joint Declaration of Southern Gas Corridor signed between Azerbaijan and the European Union in January this year is the clear example.

At the same time, the Declaration on AGRI project signed with your participation in Baku last September became the beginning of a new stage of energy co-operation in our region and the indicator of confidence between us.

Allocation of Heydar Aliyev scholarships to Romanian students as well as the national leader Heydar Aliyev’s monument erected in the city of Bucharest and the monument of George Enescu, the founder of the contemporary Romanian national composers’ school installed in Baku indicate clearly the high level of our ties in humanitarian field.

During last years, very successful political and economic reforms were implemented in Azerbaijan. As a result, GDP in our country increased almost by 3 times, salaries and pensions augmented by 5-6 times in average, poverty level dropped by 4.5 times, investments in the amount of USD82 billion were made in our country, over 900 thousand new jobs were created in last 7 years.

On the one hand, all these achievements, e.g. concrete projects implemented by us ensure the dynamic development of Azerbaijan, and on the other hand, bring peace and security to the region and impact on positively all processes going on here.

However, it is with regret I have to note that the most painful problem of Azerbaijan – Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not solved yet.

As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory covering Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions fell under occupation. Armenia conducted the ethnic cleansing policy in the occupied Azerbaijani territories by forcing over one million of people to become refugees and IDPs.

We try to solve this conflict by negotiations. The territorial integrity of Azerbaijan is recognized by the whole international community and international organizations. Our principal position envisages the resolution of the conflict in line with international law norms within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Dear Mister President, I welcome you cordially once again and wish you good health, as well as everlasting development and progress to your country and people. I raise this glass to you and to the development of relations of sincere friendship and beneficial cooperation between Romania and Azerbaijan.

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Stressing his delight of being again in Baku with an official visit, the President of Romania Traian Băsescu highly valued the dynamic economic development seen in Baku and Azerbaijan as a whole.

Noting the signature of the Action Plan that will boost further the strategic partnership between both countries and Azerbaijani-Romanian relations, Traian Băsescu highlighted that the core of bilateral relations is related to energy issues by saying:

The spinal bone of our bilateral relations is energy. This is facilitated by the convergence of our interests: Romania is promoting a systematic policy to diversify Europe's energy sources, while Azerbaijan wishes to diversify the energy routes and markets. This has led to Romania and Azerbaijan significantly contributing to the process of launching AGRI, a pioneer project that will change the regional energy chart by introducing the LNG formula into the transportation of gas in the Black Sea region. The 2010 AGRI Summit in Baku confirmed the key role played by Azerbaijan, as a source country, in implementing this new project.

President of Romania appreciated broadly the responsible and active role played by Azerbaijan at international level and pledged his special support to the contributions of Azerbaijan to the international anti-terror coalition and its actions in the framework of Partnership for Peace program.

President Traian Băsescu said that Romania watches closely the developments in South Caucasus.

We are following with great interest the events taking place in South Caucasus and are convinced that, with continuous efforts from the international community, this region will turn into an area of stability and economic cooperation. We are in favour of swiftly and peacefully identifying a negotiated solution for the conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh, which can be built only on the principles of international Law. Romania welcomes the continuation of the negotiations process between the parties, under the aegis of OSCE, and supports any proposal that is accepted by the stakeholders for the swift, sustainable settlement of the conflict.

President Traian Băsescu stressed his confidence over the contributions to be made by the results of the visit, the negotiations and the agreements reached for our peoples and regions.