President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Kyrgyz Republic Sadyr Japarov have made press statements.

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev made the statement first.

Statement by President Ilham Aliyev

- Dear Mr. President, dear guests.

Mr. President, I once again warmly welcome you to Azerbaijan. I am glad that you have accepted my invitation and are paying an official visit to our country. We met late last year. At our first meeting, I invited you to visit Azerbaijan. I am glad that in such a short time, less than six months later, you are visiting Azerbaijan. We see this as a sign of our friendship and brotherhood. Today, during the official visit of the President of Kyrgyzstan to Azerbaijan, we reviewed a wide range of bilateral cooperation. We took a thorough look at the issues on the agenda of our cooperation. We have expressed our determination to step up our relations both in private and in the presence of delegations. We are friendly and brotherly states. Today, our relations have reached a qualitatively new level. Ten documents have been signed, and I would like to emphasize two of them – the Declaration on Strategic Partnership and the Memorandum on establishing the Interstate Council. Both documents will predetermine the nature and form of our relations. The strategic partnership is a high level of interaction and motivates us for strategic cooperation. Within the framework of the Interstate Council, we will discuss the issues on the bilateral agenda, as well as regional and international issues, more effectively and actively regularly.

As for the international arena, I must say that Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan traditionally always support each other in all international organizations. We are grateful to Kyrgyzstan for its support of extending Azerbaijan's chairmanship in the Non-Aligned Movement. We always support each other within the UN, the OSCE, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Organization of Turkic States, and the ECO.

As for the trade and economic sphere, we paid particular attention to this issue today. Of course, Mr. President and I have exchanged views and agreed that we could not be satisfied with the current level of trade turnover. In my opinion, the instructions given to members of the delegations will allow us the opportunity to increase the volume of mutual trade in a short time.

Today, issues related to transport infrastructure and ways of combining our efforts to make the East-West transport corridor more efficient were also discussed in detail. Azerbaijan has a modern transport infrastructure that allows cargo to be sent in all directions – North, South and West. Of course, these opportunities, the opportunities of our port infrastructure, are at the disposal of our Kyrgyz brothers.

We have also talked in detail about investment opportunities in Kyrgyzstan. As we know, the President of Kyrgyzstan deals quite actively with energy infrastructure issues. In my opinion, this sector of the Kyrgyz economy would be of interest to Azerbaijani companies. Our companies have some experience creating modern energy enterprises and power plants, including thermal power plants. I believe that there is a great need for joint efforts and investment potential of Azerbaijan in this area.

I am sure that these and other issues will be discussed in greater detail during the meeting of Mr. President with Azerbaijan’s leading companies today. As I said, Azerbaijani companies are very interested in this meeting. This is because under the leadership of the President of Kyrgyzstan, a very attractive investment policy is being implemented to attract both foreign investment and create a favorable investment climate. This, of course, will enable all the plans of the President of Kyrgyzstan to be implemented in a short time.

We have also discussed issues related to trade and economic relations, of course, and agriculture. Here we have given specific instructions to relevant ministers. I believe that a delegation of the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan will soon visit Kyrgyzstan to work on implementing the instructions of the presidents on the ground. Of course, the humanitarian field also unites us through our cultural heritage, shared history and spiritual roots. All this has always been and will always be a factor in our interstate relations. We are thankful to Kyrgyzstan for its support of the initiative to declare the ancient Azerbaijani city of Shusha as the cultural capital of the Turkic world next year. We highly appreciate this decision of all Turkic states, including Kyrgyzstan. Our plans for restoring Shusha are being actively implemented and will be implemented. For this reason, the high honor of being the cultural capital of the Turkic world obliges us to restore our ancient and beautiful city.

In other words, we have a complete mutual understanding of all the issues we discussed today. Members of our delegations also contributed to our communication yesterday. Our mutual understanding is confirmed by the documents signed. Of course, I want to emphasize that the most important of these documents is the Declaration on Strategic Partnership. We will continue to support and cooperate on all issues and achieve concrete results in the activities of our relevant agencies.

I want to express my gratitude to the President of Kyrgyzstan for accepting my invitation and visiting our country today. Welcome again!

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Then, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov made a statement.

Statement by President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov

- Thank you, dear Ilham Heydar oglu.

Distinguished members of the media, ladies and gentlemen.

First of all, let me express my deep gratitude on behalf of the delegation of the Kyrgyz Republic to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, esteemed Mr. Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev and all the people of Azerbaijan for the warm welcome and traditional hospitality. It is very symbolic that my first official visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan is taking place on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between our brotherly countries and the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev and I have held substantive talks on topical issues of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and exchanged views on international and regional issues. The talks were held in an atmosphere of complete mutual understanding, sincerity and trust, which characterizes the fraternal relations between our countries. We have confirmed the invariability of the course towards intensification and expansion of friendly relations. We have raised the relations between Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan to the level of strategic partnership. We have just signed a relevant Declaration. This is an essential historic document, and it is quite clear that we have reached a new stage in the development of our relations thanks to the efforts of both sides. Our goal is to actively interact in the international arena, strengthen political dialogue, establish and develop closer economic ties, jointly implement significant investment projects, and further expand humanitarian cooperation. Of course, this would not be possible without a solid foundation and profound historical and moral ties between our peoples.

We have also established an Interstate Council today. Its meetings will focus on the most critical issues in developing relations between our countries. In total, ten essential documents and agreements were signed, including those on cooperation in agriculture, information technology, aviation, antimonopoly regulation and protection of intellectual property. We have ample opportunities for tangible cooperation in the trade and economic sphere. Today we are taking steps to liberalize our economy. Investment legislation is being improved, and the Kyrgyz Republic is intensifying investment cooperation with many countries. Therefore, we are inviting Azerbaijani business circles to explore investment opportunities in our country.

I am glad to note that our peoples are engaged in mutual enrichment through active cultural and humanitarian cooperation. Cultural figures hold regular exchanges and create conditions for strengthening real bridges of friendship between our peoples. We are interested in strengthening bilateral relations with Azerbaijan, as well as expanding multilateral cooperation. Our countries closely cooperate within the UN, the Organization of Turkic States, the CIS, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Non-Aligned Movement. For its part, Kyrgyzstan fully supports raising the status of Azerbaijan in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to the level of an observer.

Ladies and gentlemen. The profound changes in the world today give us a historic chance to build new types of relations, make them more humane, and proceed from ancient Turkic values such as dignity and honor. These new relations in the Turkic space should be an example of interstate relations of the new era. It gives me great pleasure to realize that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev, shares our views and fully supports them.

Strong leaders are needed in difficult times. They are responsible for making their country more robust and the world better. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely wish President Ilham Aliyev continued success in all his endeavors, inexhaustible energy to achieve the highest goals for the well-being of the Azerbaijani people and universal values. We are ready to work effectively with our Azerbaijani brothers based on these values. We believe that together we will overcome all difficulties and contribute to building a better world. We have all the conditions for this.

Thank you for your attention.