Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, held an expanded meeting with Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation.

At the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev said:

- Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Dear members of the delegation! I sincerely welcome you once again to Azerbaijan.

Over the course of yesterday and today, we have reviewed the bilateral agenda. We discussed several important issues of our cooperation and will now continue our work in an expanded format.

First of all, I would like to greet you once again. While this is not your first visit to Azerbaijan, it is your first state visit, and this visit is of exceptional importance for our bilateral relations.

We have already exchanged views and expressed satisfaction with the development of relations between our countries – relations between friends, neighbors, and allies. We are witnessing positive momentum in all areas. The composition of our delegations is also very illustrative and speaks for itself. Indeed, there are indeed quite a few topics for discussion of cooperation, and the scope of our mutual activities is expanding year by year.

We are committed to strengthening our cooperation in all areas, and I am confident that your visit will be another important step in bringing our countries and peoples even closer together.

You are welcome again.

President Vladimir Putin said:

- Thank you very much for the invitation. As you have already noted, we have a very large delegation – and this is the case from both sides. The Government of the Russian Federation is here almost in full.

We have already mentioned and recalled that just recently, 10 days ago, a meeting of the intergovernmental commission was held, and it noted the development of our relations – in fact, it didn’t just note it but indicated that we are fully implementing our agreements, which were spelled out in the relevant declaration of 2022 and are in accordance with the agreements reached during your visit in April of this year.

Working in such a broad composition makes it possible to lay out steps for the near future. Earlier, although it was termed a “limited format” meeting, we managed to go over a number of absolutely priority issues. We still have to sign the relevant documents, and our colleagues had the opportunity - both yesterday evening, just as we did, in an informal setting and today during the day – to communicate with each other and outline steps for the near future.

So, thank you very much. We will probably give the floor to the heads of the intergovernmental commission.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.