Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met on Saturday and signed a package of documents boosting bilateral cooperation.
BOCHAROV RUCHEY (Sochi) (Pakistan Point news / Sputnik - 01st September, 2018) Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev met on Saturday and signed a package of documents boosting bilateral cooperation.
The signing ceremony took place in the Russian presidential residence of Bocharov Ruchey.
According to Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan Mikhail Bocharnikov, the package of documents seeks to expand the economic cooperation between Moscow and Baku. He noted that the parties wanted to increase bilateral trade.
After talks with Aliyev, Putin pointed out the strategic nature of Russian-Azerbaijani relations.
"I would like to stress that our meetings are held regularly, and this is only natural since we enjoy extensive collaboration, which we call a strategic partnership ... Our relations are developing along both the political lines and in the economy. Last year trade between our countries grew by 34 percent, even over 34 percent, whereas in the first six months of this year the volume of the trade in civilian industry products grew by 20 percent. These are very good indicators," Putin said, as quoted by the Kremlin press service.
After the talks Putin and Aliyev signed a joint statement on key areas of the bilateral economic cooperation.
The Russian president thanked his Azerbaijani counterpart for the productive and substantiate negotiations.
"I am sure that the reached agreements will promote further development of Russian-Azerbaijani friendship, will help develop mutually beneficial cooperation for the benefit of our countries and peoples," Putin said.
During negotiations the presidents also signed an agreement on jointly exploring the Goshadash oil and gas block located in the northern part of the Absheron Peninsula. The Russian Rosneft oil giant signed a contract with the SOCAR Trading S.A. company.
