AzerTag, Azerbaijan
March 17 2005

OFFICIALS OF AZERBAIJAN AND CHINA MEET IN AN ENLARGED FORMAT
[March 17, 2005, 11:49:05]

After the official welcoming ceremony, an enlarged Azerbaijan-China
meeting took place.

Sincerely greeting President Ilham Aliyev, President Hu Jintao
congratulated, on behalf of the Chinese people and government, the
Azerbaijani delegation and the people of the country on the occasion
of upcoming Novruz bayram.

Addressing President Ilham Aliyev, the Chinese leader said: `Your
visit to China is very important event in the history of
Azerbaijan-China relations. Your visit will serve strengthening
mutual understanding between Azerbaijan and China, and become a
symbol of all-round development of the bilateral relations.’

Mr. Hu Jintao noted China was aware of the President Ilham Aliyev’s
purposeful policy towards economic growth in the Azerbaijan,
improvement of people’s social conditions, and expressed satisfaction
with strengthening of Azerbaijan’s leading position in the South
Caucasus. The Chinese President advised that his country would
provide 15 million yuans assistance to Azerbaijan.

President Ilham Aliyev for his part expressed gratitude to his
counterpart for the invitation to visit China noting `Azerbaijan
attached a great importance to this visit’. `This visit will bring
political, economic and cultural relations between our two countries
up to a new level,’ he said. The President expressed confidence that
Azerbaijan’s leadership would continue to encourage Chinese business
circles in making investments in various sectors of the country’s
economy. He also expressed confidence that the two countries would
support each other in the framework of international organizations.

The parties also exchanged views on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict
over Nagorno-Karabakh. Mr. Jintao noted China unambiguously support
territorial integrity of Azerbaijan, and touching in this connection
upon Taiwan issue, said `we stand for peaceful resolution of
conflicts, on the base of international legal norms, particularly, in
accordance with the UN Charter. The Chinese leader thanked the
Azerbaijani leadership for the support as for the Taiwan problem.

Speaking of Azerbaijan’s most painful problem, the conflict with
Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, President Ilham Aliyev highly
appreciated China’s support of the territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan at the international level

The parties also exchanged view on a number of bilateral and regional
issues.