His Excellency Mr Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Dear Mr President,

First of all, allow me to convey my best wishes to you and your family. Many thanks for your greetings card which I received this weekend.

I wish you a great celebration of your 58th birthday on the 24th of December and a happy, healthy, peaceful New Year. With the upcoming New Year, it is a good moment to reflect on the cooperation actions and results of 2019 and to look forward to the next year.

We can look back on a fruitful cooperation between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands again. Let me give you a brief update the developments of the last period and ongoing projects.

There was a long-term cooperation between Maastricht School of Management and ADA University. Maastricht School of Management will be integrated within Maastricht University soon. We are looking forward to establish a new cooperation between ADA University and Maastricht University in near future.

The cargo flights between the Heydar Aliyev International Airport and Maastricht Aachen Airport operated by Silkway Airlines are still very successful. We are looking forward to strengthen and extend this activities in the upcoming years.

The cooperation between Port of Baku and logistic companies from the Province of Limburg, which was started by a visit of the management of Port of Baku to Greenport Venlo last year, looks promising.

I had the pleasure meeting you in February of this year when we discussed several topics, like the pilot farm in Kurdamir. This month a start is made with sowing the land. It is a challenging project. Your support to make this project a success is highly appreciated.

A group of companies from the Netherlands participated in the EU-Azerbaijan Business Forum in June. The Netherlands was present with a Holland Pavilion at Caspian Agro and is also planning to participate in 2020. On 12th of November they organized a successful seminar with the title “Sustainable Agriculture for Producing Healthy Food” in close cooperation with your Ministry of Agriculture at Hilton Hotel.

Renowned company Ballast Nedam is in contact with your Minister of Energy about setting up a pilot project for wind energy in Azerbaijan. It would be highly appreciated if you can support this initiative and they can realize this project next year.

To follow up on the success of our joint projects and to further strengthen economic and business collaboration between our two countries, I am glad to hear that your country will participate at Floriade Expo 2022. Azerbaijan participated successfully in Floriade 2012, its pavilion was highly ranked by the visitors. It gives great potential to strengthen the relations in different fields in the upcoming years.

I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude again to you for your support in the development of the bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the Netherlands. We are looking forward to continue our cooperation. I intend to visit your country in the week of 17th of February.

I wish you and your beloved ones a happy and healthy 2020 and prosperity and peace for your country and your citizens.

Warm regards with my continuing support

Sincerely yours,

In friendship,

Rene van der Linden

Member of the Board of Trustees of ADA University,

Former President of the Senate of the Kingdom of the Netherlands,

Honorary President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,

Chairman of Dutch-Azerbaijan Friendship Group