JORDANIAN KING HOLDS TALKS WITH AZERBAIJANI PRESIDENT

Jordan News Agency (Petra), Jordan
Aug. 23, 2006

Baku, Aug. 23 (Petra)– His Majesty King Abdullah II on Wednesday held
talks at the Presidential Palace in Baku with Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev focused on the relations between the two countries and
ways of strengthening them in all areas.

Talks touched to a number of issues of mutual concern and means of
fostering the bilateral cooperation.

The two sides discussed the challenges facing the Middle East and the
latest developments, particularly the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
in addition to the problem of the Armenian occupation of the of
Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is about 20% of the Azerbaijani
territory.

His Majesty King said his talks with the Azerbaijani President were
important, affirming that it was a real opportunity to build on the
strong political relations and develop relations of cooperation in
many areas.

In a statement following the talks, His Majesty said "We discussed
during the talks several issues of common interest, especially since
our two countries are facing the same challenges and can achieve a
great deal of interest through enhancing cooperation in a number of
priority areas for the two countries,"

"We discussed a number of issues in the region, which constitutes
a major challenge for our countries, where Jordan and Azerbaijan
will work together to face these challenges that face the region as a
whole," King Abdullah said, stressing the importance of translating the
friendly relations between the two leaderships into strong relations
between the Jordanian and Azerbaijani peoples.

His Majesty pointed to the importance of the visit in supporting the
economic relations and in increasing the trade exchange between the
two countries, affirming that Jordan will pay much more attention to
the economic issue.

"We will work with the government and the embassy of Azerbaijan in
Amman to translate the results of the successful visit to achieve
the desired objectives into reality," the King added, inviting the
President of Azerbaijan to visit Jordan in the near future.

Talks were attended on the Jordanian side by HRH Prince Ali Bin Al
Hussein, Director of the King’s Office Basim Awadallah, the Minister
of Foreign Affairs Abdel Elah Khatib, and Jordanian non-resident
Ambassador Fares Mufti. On the Azerbaijani side, Minister for Foreign
Affairs Almar Mamadiarov, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
National Security Navroz Mammadov and the Azerbaijani Ambassador in
Amman Alman Arsli.