Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia Discuss Karabakh Settlement

Baku / 01.09.18 / Turan: "Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan are relations of strategic partners. They cover all areas of our lives. And today, during my visit, we discussed in detail many aspects of our bilateral relations and international issues," Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Saturday after his talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

"I would like to note that among the issues that we discussed, an important place is occupied by the issues of regional security, primarily the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which lasts a very long time and has led to great suffering for the Azerbaijani people," the President of Azerbaijan continued.

As Aliyev stressed, "for many years the internationally recognized territory of Azerbaijan is under Armenian occupation, more than a million Azerbaijanis have become refugees and internally displaced persons as a result of this conflict."

"Russia as the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, which deals with the settlement of the conflict, plays an important role in the settlement. Russia is our neighbor, our historical partner and friend. And we expect that Russia's efforts to resolve the conflict will continue," Aliyev said.

Putin spoke on economic cooperation more. He particularly noted the North-South transport corridor project. "One of the most promising projects is the creation of the international transport corridor North-South, which will connect the Western European markets with Asian producers. This will significantly accelerate the transport of goods from South Asia and the Middle East through Iran to Europe. The total length of this artery will be more than 7 thousand kilometers. It will include rail, ferry and road transport. At the same time, a significant part of the North-South corridor will go through the territories of Russia and Azerbaijan. I emphasize that work on individual sections of the route is already underway. Next year, our countries intend to complete the construction of a bridge across the border river Samur," Putin said. -----06D--