AZERBAIJAN HAILS RUSSIA’S STANCE ON KARABAKH, POSITIVE ON OUTCOME OF VISIT
Interfax News Agency
July 4 2008
Russia
Baku, 4 July: Official Baku assesses the outcome of the official visit
of President of the Russian Federation Dmitriy Medvedev to Azerbaijan
"in the highest degree positive", Fuad Axundov, head of a sector at
the Presidential Executive Staff, has said.
"The latest visit and the outcome of the negotiations held in Baku have
again confirmed that as usual the Azerbaijani-Russian relations occupy
the highest place in the structure of the foreign policy priorities
of the two countries," Fuad Axundov told Interfax-Azerbaijan news
agency on Friday.
In his words, the most important outcome of the Baku summit of the two
countries’ leaders was the signing of the Declaration on Friendship
and Strategic Partnership. "Unlike the previous declarations, the
title of this document speaks for itself: it precisely fixes the
strategic nature and strategic prospects of bilateral relations,"
said Fuad Axundov.
Moscow’s position on the Karabakh conflict reflected in the document
is of special significance for Baku, he said. "In this context, Baku
is happy about the fact that the Russian side has again confirmed in
this document its position in favour of unacceptability of the forcible
change of internationally-recognized borders in the region and noted
the importance of a quick settlement of the conflict on the basis of
generally-accepted norms and principles of the international laws,"
Fuad Axundov said.
The economic section of the negotiations, where Azerbaijan’s interests
overlapped with Russia’s priorities, was not less productive, Fuad
Axundov said. "The sides agreed to intensify cooperation both in
traditional spheres of trade and economy and in new spheres, such
as the realization of joint investment projects, cooperation in the
sphere of highest technologies and nanotechnology, implementation
of investment projects at markets of third countries, draw up joint
programmes in the sphere of securing food security and so on," the
high-ranking official of the Azerbaijani authorities said.
"Last year Russia became the second trade partner of our country
with the figure of 1.5bn dollars. However, this figure is a long way
from being a limit in our rapidly developing economies, especially
as because of the results of the first four months of 2008, Russia
is in the third position on the list of the leading trade partners
of Azerbaijan after Italy and the USA," said Fuad Axundov.