To His Excellency Mr. Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic

Dear Mr. President.

On my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate You, and through You, all your people on the occasion of June 2 - Republic Day.

The current level of Azerbaijan-Italy relationship based on mutual trust and good traditions is satisfying. Our strong political ties constitute a foundation of steadily developing cooperation in trade, economic, energy, educational, cultural and other fields and multifaceted strategic partnership. And it, for its part, serves the interests of our states and peoples and bring them even closer to each other.

Italy is a major trade partner of Azerbaijan. We are pleased with our steadily developing effective activity in the economic field. Our successful and lasting cooperation in the energy sector forms one of its integral parts. I am happy that our joint steps in this direction contribute to the energy security of Europe and, at the same time, cements Azerbaijan-Italy cooperation.

We hail active involvement of the Italian companies in ongoing reconstruction and restoration works in Azerbaijan, in particular, liberated lands. The companies representing your country are one of those doing most of the work in Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur, and it suggests the level of our interstate relations.

We place a special emphasis on expanding relations with Italy, our friendly country and reliable strategic partner, and are determined to diversify our joint activity in the non-oil sector and imbue it with new content. Our high-level political dialogue, multiple reciprocal visits, documents signed, joint projects implemented play an important role in defining new directions of our cooperation. We hail Italy’s permanent support for development of Azerbaijan’s relations with the European Union.

I am sure that traditional friendly ties between Azerbaijan and Italy, our effective cooperation both bilaterally and within the framework of the European Union will continue from now on by our joint efforts in line with interests of our friendly peoples and deepen our strategic partnership even more.

On this holiday, I extend my best wishes to You and friendly people of Italy welfare and stability.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev,

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 30 May 2023