Ilham Aliyev received Defense Minister of Belarus

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received Minister of Defense of the Republic of Belarus Viktor Khrenin.

Welcoming the minister, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- Welcome! I am pleased to see you. I am confident that the visit will be successful. You will discuss in detail the issues of our cooperation in the military sphere with your colleague. We are doing well in all areas. The recent visit of President Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko confirmed that again. We had a very detailed conversation and extensive negotiations on a very broad agenda of bilateral relations, including issues of military and technical cooperation between our countries, which already have a long history. We aim to continue our cooperation in this direction, but also in all other areas. Belarus and Azerbaijan are demonstrating a high level of interaction and cooperation today. I have invited Belarusian companies to participate in the restoration of liberated territories. I will show you photographs from these territories later on, as they clearly testify to the level of vandalism and destruction that our lands have sustained over the course of nearly 30 years of occupation. As far as I know, there is already interest in the involvement with these matters. Also, a delegation led by the Minister of Agriculture of Azerbaijan will soon visit Belarus in line with the agreements reached during the visit of the President. But in all other areas we will continue to actively cooperate and support each other. Cooperation in the military and military-technical sphere between our countries, as I said, has a long history and yields very good results. Therefore, I am sure that your discussions and exchange of views with your counterparts will be useful in further developing cooperation in this area. Welcome again.

Minister of Defense of Belarus Viktor Khrenin said:

- Thank you Mr. President. First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to you for the opportunity to meet with you and convey greetings and wishes of peace and prosperity to you and the people of Azerbaijan from President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko. The exchange of visits at a high level always indicates that we have excellent engagement and cooperation. As our head of state says, Azerbaijan has a reliable support in Central Europe through Belarus, and Belarus through Azerbaijan has reliable friends in the Caucasus. Quoting our President, I should say that we have excellent cooperation. And he is very proud of it. Azerbaijan has traditionally been our friend and ally, has always played an important role both in the regional and international political arena. I would like to express our gratitude to you personally for your support on global platforms, and first of all, the political support for the Republic of Belarus.

Mr. President, we also welcome the agreements you have reached on the cessation of hostilities in the Nagorno-Karabakh zone. We are very confident that under your wise leadership, this will become a good foundation for the further development of this region and the cementing of peace across your country.

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President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev thanked for Alexander Lukashenko’s greetings and asked the minister to convey his greetings to the President of Belarus.