Ilham Aliyev held expanded meeting with Prime Minister of Cambodia

On October 12, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev held an expanded meeting with Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia Hun Manet.

Addressing the event, President Ilham Aliyev said: Mr. Prime Minister, dear guests, welcome once again to Azerbaijan. I am very glad to host you, and thank you for accepting my invitation and paying an official visit to our country.

We have just had very good discussions on a broad range of issues on our bilateral agenda, and I am sure that there is great potential to strengthen our partnership. As I said during our meeting just now, we have very good political relations, and we need to capitalize on them and use your official visit to Azerbaijan to elaborate a broad roadmap for partnership in different areas. We have already covered some important areas of our interaction, and I am sure there will be more. And definitely, your visit, which is a demonstration of our friendship, will provide a good opportunity to explore all the possibilities for bilateral cooperation, whether in trade, investment, joint manufacturing, energy security, or many other areas.

I would also like to thank you for accepting my invitation to attend the CICA summit, which will be held very soon. This is the first time Azerbaijan is hosting this event. As you know, our chairmanship was unanimously supported. We consider this a clear demonstration of the member states’ respect for our policy, which is based on our sovereignty and independent position. I hope that this important international event will contribute to security in our region and across the broader Eurasian region, something that I believe all countries need.

Once again, Mr. Prime Minister, welcome. I am very glad that you are visiting us with a large delegation. I wish all our guests a pleasant stay in Azerbaijan. I am sure that the visit will yield very good results, further strengthening our friendship and cooperation.

Prime Minister Hun Manet: Mr. President, once again, thank you for your kind invitations to attend the CICA summit and to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan. I am very glad to have the opportunity to visit your beautiful country. I also thank you for the hospitality extended to me and my delegation thus far. As we have just discussed, there is considerable room for engagement and for expanding our cooperation, which was established over 30 years ago.

I would also like to take this opportunity to convey the highest regards of His Majesty King Norodom Sihamoni and former Prime Minister of Cambodia Hun Sen to Your Excellency. I look forward to continuing our discussions on the topics we have just discussed and, beyond that, to identifying concrete steps that our countries can take to further expand our cooperation.

Mr. President, thank you once again for your kind invitations.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you. Please convey my greetings to His Majesty the King and to former Prime Minister and Senate President Hun Sen, whom I met 12 years ago in this building.