Ilham Aliyev and Sergei Lavrov Discuss Karabakh Settlement

Baku / 19.11.17 / Turan: Azerbaijan is extremely interested in the soonest settlement of the Karabakh conflict. This was stated by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on November 19. "Today we will talk about the issues related to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan is extremely interested in an early settlement of this issue," he said at a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

According to Ilham Aliyev, today's meeting with the Russian Minister is an opportunity to discuss issues related to the further development of relations between the two countries. He pointed out that Azerbaijan is satisfied with the way the interstate relations develop, covering all spheres and having very good dynamism.

Ilham Aliyev reported on the regularity of meetings at high and the highest levels. "All this shows that the relations [between the countries] are at a high level.We have long characterized them as relations between strategic partners and are confident that in the future we will increase the potential of our cooperation," TASS quoted Ilham Aliyev as saying.

In his turn, Sergei Lavrov noted he intends to discuss issues of mutual activity at international venues during negotiations with his Azerbaijani counterpart. "We, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, are interested in making progress in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. I agree with you that we must make active efforts in this direction," Sergei Lavrov said.

Concerning economic cooperation, he noted with satisfaction the growth of the bilateral trade turnover. "According to our statistics, over the first nine months it was more than 60%. This is a very serious step towards reversing the tendency to reduce the turnover that has taken place for several years, and to gather momentum." These words of the Russian Foreign Minister in the message published on the website of the head of Azerbaijan are quoted. -06D--