After the one-on-one meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, the fourth meeting of the two countries’ Council of the Presidents was held.
The meeting was also attended by members of the Azerbaijani and Ukrainian delegations.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev made speeches at the meeting.
President Viktor Yanukovych said:
- Dear Ilham Heydar oglu,
Dear participants in the meeting, colleagues and friends,
We have repeatedly met with you at this table. We have conducted dozens of joint events, and today we have once again gathered in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. In fact, it is the first visit of President Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev to Ukraine after the presidential elections in Azerbaijan.
On behalf of our delegation and on behalf of the Ukrainian people, dear Ilham Heydar oglu, I want to congratulate you on another victory, a brilliant victory in the presidential election and, of course, I wish you personally good health, the enthusiasm you always have, new energy, and wish the friendly people of Azerbaijan stability and prosperity.
So today, holding another meeting, we highly value this meeting. We are very grateful to the President of Azerbaijan for his respect for Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. Of course, we are very impressed with it, because we remember different times in our relations and the difficult times that our countries experienced. And always, you know, you come to know your friends when there are difficulties. We remember very well when Ukraine was in a very difficult situation, and Heydar Aliyev decided to provide free assistance to Ukraine. Exclusive conditions were created and oil was delivered. Practically, we saved both energy and agriculture then. It is certainly not forgotten.
We have a proposal. We consulted Ilham Heydar oglu, and there is a proposal to listen to the co-chairs of our commission, because we know that this commission has been preparing, issues have been examined at the level of subgroups.
If there are no objections, Ilham Heydar oglu, I want to give you the floor.
X X X
President Ilham Aliyev said:
Thank you, dear Viktor Fedorovich,
Dear friends, first of all, I would like to thank Viktor Fedorovich for the invitation to pay an official visit to Ukraine again. I want to thank you for your kind congratulations on my victory in the presidential election. You were one of the first to phone and congratulate me. It is a sign of our relations and our cooperation. I really appreciate our relations and our friendship, which plays an important role in strengthening relations between our countries today. For us, Ukraine is a friend, partner and a country you can rely on, a reliable partner. In your person, Ukraine is undergoing a period of development and stability. I know about the big plans that you are carrying out to develop your country. I am confident that under your leadership Ukraine will continue to go the way of creation, strengthening sovereignty and addressing important social, infrastructural and economic challenges. We, as your friends, are very happy about this. And for our part, we also strive to ensure that our relations are filled with new content.
Between our countries there is very close cooperation in many areas. Another meeting of the joint commission today - the Council of the Presidents - is a new step towards strengthening our cooperation. In the political, energy and economic areas there are already good results and good prospects. So, as you pointed out, I regard the format of today's Council as correct: to hear out the reports of the chairmen and then, perhaps, ministers in order to identify our further paths of development as well as to summarize what has been done.
Thank you again for your hospitality. Yesterday and today we talked in great detail about bilateral and regional issues. Once again many thanks for the warm welcome.
