After the one-on-one meeting, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Swiss Confederation Didier Burkhalter met in an expanded format with the participation of delegations.
President Ilham Aliyev said:
- Mr. President, distinguished guests, welcome to Azerbaijan. I am pleased to see you. This visit is very important. It is a good opportunity for reexamining our successfully developing bilateral ties, which cover many areas. I am confident that in the coming years our bilateral ties will become even stronger, because there is a strong political desire to develop them. The value our partnership is increasing, as it covers many areas – political, economic, investment and cultural. Therefore, I am convinced that in the coming years we will continue the strong partnerships that have been developing rapidly over the past few years.
Today we have discussed the good prospects for the expansion of our relations, in particular our cooperation in the areas of mutual investment and joint ventures, including the already started cooperation in the energy sector which promises to be very effective. You are visiting our country also as chairman of the OSCE.
We do hope that your visit to the region will be very fruitful and will contribute to the development of positive trends in our region, especially in terms of conflict settlement, and will promote the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Once again – you are welcome! We hope that your visit will be a success.
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President of the Swiss Confederation Didier Burkhalter said:
- Mr. President and members of the delegation, thank you. First of all, I want to thank you for the very warm and cordial welcome. This reception is cordial in all senses of the word – both in terms of the country and from the standpoint of the scenic landscape. Thank you very much. This is my first visit to your country. I did not have enough time to thoroughly familiarize myself with your country. This will not be a visit of detailed familiarization.
I am sure that we will come here again and have more time to better study the region, your country, the city of Baku which made a deep impression on us last night, when I arrived, and this morning. Thank you for your welcome. This is a special time for our two countries. First of all, we have very good friendly relations which we can intensify. I am confident that we have a broad potential for private investment. Swiss companies are interested in investing in your country.
