At the end of the one-to-one meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine, the third session of the Council of Presidents of the two countries was held. It was also attended by members of the Azerbaijani and Ukrainian delegations.
Opening the session, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said:
- Esteemed Viktor Fyodorovych! Esteemed guests!
I welcome you to Azerbaijan with all my heart. I am very pleased to see you in our country. This is your first visit to Azerbaijan as president of Ukraine. I am sure that your visit will be a success, fine results will be achieved and we will make good progress. I would also like to thank you for the hospitality shown to me during my visit to your country last year.
We have determined the main areas of cooperation between our countries and we are advancing in all directions. The inter-governmental commission is working effectively and a political dialogue is taking shape. At our one-to-one meeting today you and I discussed the broad agenda of our relations. We will also be discussing an agreed agenda at today’s session of the Council of Presidents. It is vast, exhaustive and specific, and I am confident that by the end of the session we will have determined further steps in the development of our relations. We value these relations highly, they are dear to us and we are confident that in the future the consistent development of relations between Ukraine and Azerbaijan will also contribute to broad regional cooperation.
Once again I welcome you with all my heart and I hope your visit will be both successful and pleasant.
Welcome!
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who was next to speak, had this to say:
- Thank you, dear Ilham Heydar oglu!
Esteemed participants in the session!
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to you, Ilham Heydar oglu, for your invitation and for the opportunity to pay an official visit to the Azerbaijan Republic. Our countries have been strategic partners for a long time. This is, I would say, a clear example of how one needs to build relations between two very close countries.
We are developing our bilateral relationship very successfully. We have a splendid inter-governmental commission and sub-commissions working on all areas, as was proved by last year’s results. A vivid example of this effective work was the record growth in trade turnover between our countries. But this is by no means the limit. I am confident that we have much greater opportunities. I was pleased to see that among Azerbaijan’s trading partners, Ukraine is now second only to Russia. This is splendid. We are also very comfortable in building relations with you.
