AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Jan 31 2007

PRESIDENT MEETS WITH CHAIRMAN OF FRENCH NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
[January 30, 2007, 17:50:07]

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met with Chairman of the French
National Assembly Jean-Louis Debre.

Chairman Debre described the Azerbaijan President’s state visit to
France as very important for development of bilateral relations. `The
meeting at the National Assembly is of great value for its members
and businessmen involved in various sectors of France’s economy as it
gives the opportunity for them to get information about developments
in Azerbaijan and the region directly from you,’ he said addressing
Azerbaijan’s leader.

President Aliyev said it was his fifth visit to France over the last
three years. `It shows how great is the significance Azerbaijan
attaches to relations with your country,’ he said adding France is a
friendly country to Azerbaijan.

The Head of State also spoke of enhancing cooperation between the two
countries in energy and other sectors of the economy as part of the
Azerbaijan-EU relations.

The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh was also the
subject of the talks between President of Azerbaijan and Chairman of
the French National Assembly. The President highly valued France’s
participation, as a Co-Chair of the OSCE Minsk group, in the peace
process, and the country’s support for territorial integrity of
Azerbaijan. He informed Chairman Debre about Armenia’s aggression
against Azerbaijan resulted in occupation of 20% of Azerbaijan’s
lands and a million people becoming refugees and internally
displaced.

The importance of expansion of interparliamentary ties between
Azerbaijan and France was emphasized during the conversation as well.