President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Chairman of the State Council of the Sultanate of Oman Yahya bin Mahfoudh al-Mantheri.
Welcoming the delegation, President Ilham Aliyev said:
- You are welcome. I am very glad to see you. I know that you have just arrived.
Yahya bin Mahfoudh al-Mantheri: Yes.
President Ilham Aliyev: I hope that your visit to our country is very interesting and fruitful.
Yahya bin Mahfoudh al-Mantheri: Please allow me to take this opportunity to convey personally to you and to the people of Azerbaijan the greetings of His Excellency Qaboos.
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. Please convey my greetings and best wishes to His Excellency and your people. I am sure that during your visit to Baku you will get acquainted with our city, see the development of Azerbaijan and also take part in the summit. We are very grateful to your country for the fact that Oman is represented at the Summit at a very high level. This demonstrates the importance you attach to membership in this organization. At the same time, we see this as an indicator of friendship towards us because we have organized this important international event as a host country and will preside over this organization for the next three years. Of course, we will work together within the framework of the Non-Aligned Movement and in a bilateral format.
Your visit is a good opportunity to discuss some issues of our bilateral cooperation. The level of political ties, political dialogue and solidarity that we demonstrate towards each other in international organizations, in particular the UN, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, full satisfies us. We also want to expand our economic ties – currently the ties are at an average level. However, I think that by joint efforts we can achieve good progress because there is a lot we can offer to each other. We can thus expand our trade relations. We can find many areas of cooperation, and I am very glad that people of your country are visiting Azerbaijan more often.
Yahya bin Mahfoudh al-Mantheri: It is a good place for them and their families to visit.
President Ilham Aliyev: Yes, that's right. In addition, the free visa regime allows them the opportunity to come to our country at any time. I hope you have a good time in Azerbaijan.
Yahya bin Mahfoudh al-Mantheri: Your Excellency, I was here last year. In addition, I had the honor of meeting with you during my visit to participate in events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of your parliament. We had a great time in Azerbaijan, in Baku. Within the framework of this visit, under your leadership, we will intensify our efforts so that the Non-Aligned Movement succeeds over three years. In Oman, there are great opportunities for investment in our infrastructure, in particular, I mean Dokon and other projects. We do hope that our countries reach certain bilateral agreements in this area.
Your Excellency, thank you very much for taking the time to meet with us.
President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.
