Azerbaijan, Russia eye further development of economic cooperation

MOSCOW

Baku is satisfied with the growth of economic cooperation with Moscow and sees prospects to increase it further, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Friday.

Speaking at a meeting with Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin in the capital Baku, Aliyev said the bilateral trade has reached near the "pre-pandemic" level.

He said: "Strengthening the potential of transport corridors, primarily North-South, will be in the interests of all countries and will open up additional prospects.

"On the eve of your visit, I looked at the statistics and was pleased that the number of flights is growing, more than 130 flights a week.”

He underlined that a drop in the number of flights was due to the pandemic, and said: We expect to expand the agenda of cooperation, so the number of flights will grow."

Aliyev also noted that the tourist flow from Russia has increased by about 80% this year.

He said that the interregional forum held in Baku on Thursday with the participation of the prime ministers of the two countries was “successful.”

For his part, Mishustin echoed Aliyev’s views, saying he is convinced that joint transport infrastructure and logistics projects will become "a new driver for building up the entire range of cooperation."

He highlighted the importance of the international North-South transport corridor. "We expect that by 2030 the volume of traffic through it will increase to 15 million tons per year."

"Through the governments, we are working very actively to implement the decisions taken by the presidents of the two countries," Mishustin said.

According to him, during the talks with Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov on Thursday, an increased attention was paid to cooperation in the energy, industry, transport, cultural and humanitarian spheres, and as a result, a number of agreements were signed on the development of cooperation in various fields.