A meeting of the presidents of Azerbaijan and the Russian Federation – Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, took place before the SOC summit in Samarkand.

During the meeting, Putin noted the successful development of bilateral relations, the website of the President of Azerbaijan . “The volume of trade and investments are also growing, cooperation is going on through various ministries, departments, parliaments,” Putin said. Then he touched upon the latest military escalation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.

“Of course, today we are all very worried about the aggravation of the situation on the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. We talked about this with you. Last night I talked, you know about it, I informed you about it, with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan. It is good that the escalation was finally stopped by coordinated efforts, but as far as I understand, it still remains tense. I am very glad to have the opportunity to see you and talk about all these issues, because they are all important,” Putin continued.

Aliyev noted that after the signing the Declaration on Allied Cooperation, “important documents on various sectors” were signed and, in general, “the volume of cargo transportation is growing in trade and in the transport sector.” “We also intend to fully use the potential of our transit capabilities now. And I am sure that we will finish this year with good results in all areas,” Aliyev continued.

He also thanked Putin “for the prompt response to the aggravation, escalation in the zone of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.” “The clashes lasted less than eight hours and now they stopped, although the Armenian side did not immediately begin to implement the ceasefire, but, in general, the ceasefire has been observed for about two days. Border conflicts happen. But the main thing is that we managed to stabilize the situation, transfer it to peaceful conditions,” Aliyev further noted.

Now the main thing is not to destroy the beginning process of normalization of relations, to move in this direction, the President of Azerbaijan continued. “We welcome the efforts of Russia aimed at this, including within the framework of the tripartite commission at the level of vice-premiers of Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia for transport communications, as part of the delimitation process, as well as plans to start negotiations on a peace agreement. But, of course, we will discuss this in detail,” Aliyev stressed.

He confirmed Azerbaijan’s adherence to the tripartite documents that were signed between Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia after the Second Karabakh War. “We will do everything to ensure that the situation in the Caucasus be stable,” Aliyev said.

Source: Turan News Agency