Speech by Ilham Aliyev in the official dinner reception hosted by the President of the Republic of Slovenia Danilo Türk

- Dear Mister President:

Ladies and gentlemen:

First of all, I express my gratitude to you, Mister President, for the hospitality extended to me and the delegation. I am very pleased to visit your nice country for the second time.

I think it important to realize mutual visits to expand and elevate our bilateral ties into a qualitatively newer level. In this respect, I would like to note, in particular, your successful visit to Azerbaijan in 2009.

Today, in a new stage of our ties, there are wider horizons for the development of co-operation in industrial, energy, transport, information technologies, tourism, trade, investments and other fields. However, it should be recognized that indicators of our economic relations do not meet the potential of our countries. Trade turnover and volume of investments between two countries are not at a desirable level.

I do believe that the meetings we held during my visit, as well as the exchange of views and the discussions we had will give an impetus to bringing the relations between our countries into a new level.

Azerbaijani and Slovenian peoples supported each other in the days of hardships. The memory of Mehdi Huseynzade known as Mikhaylo who died heroically in fight against fascism during the years of Second World War, lives always in hearts of both peoples. The Slovenian people do not forget its heroes till nowadays. The membership of the representatives of various public organizations of Nova Gorica city and particularly, of almost 80 Slovenians who once fought together with Mehdi Huseynzade to the newly created Slovenian-Azerbaijani Friendship Society demonstrates the mutual respect and attention between our peoples.

It is very pleasant to see the co-operation between Azerbaijan and Slovenia within international and regional organizations, particularly UN, OSCE, the European Union and the Council of Europe.

Ties with EU and Euro-Atlantic structures take an important place in foreign policy of Azerbaijan. The Memorandum of Understanding on a Strategic Partnership in the field of energy signed in 2006 between Azerbaijan and the European Union as well as the Declaration on Southern Gas Corridor signed this January are clear examples of these ties.

Azerbaijan which has already become the main economic center of the region is ready to contribute further to ensure energy security of European countries. We are interested in delivering our energy resources to the world markets in all directions and stand ready to review initiatives forwarded for transportation of oil and gas produced by us to Europe. Large scale oil and gas projects implemented by Azerbaijan prove that we are a reliable partner and enable us to co-operate further with all interested parties.

Besides all issues mentioned above, the biggest threat to the development of region is the non resolution of the Armenian-Azerbaijani, Nagorno Karabakh conflict. As you know, almost 20 years that the Nagorno Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and 7 other regions of our country are under the occupation of Armenia. This constitutes roughly 20 percent of total territory of Azerbaijan. As a result of ethnic cleansing policy pursued by Armenia, over one million of Azerbaijanis became refugees and IDPs.

There are 4 resolutions of UN Security Council related to the conflict as well as decisions and resolutions of OIC, OSCE, the Council of Europe, NATO and other international organizations. This conflict should be solved only on the basis of international law within the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan.

Dear Mister President, allow me to raise this glass to you and to the development of the relations of sincere friendship and useful co-operation between Azerbaijan and Slovenia.