President Ilham Aliyev: Russia is Azerbaijan's number one partner

16:06 - 28.09.2018


September 28, Fineko/abc.az. Russia is Azerbaijan's number one trading partner on import and export of goods of the nonoil sector.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated during the opening ceremony of the 9th Azerbaijan-Russia Interregional Forum that Azerbaijan and Russia have very strong ties in the energy and oil-gas sectors.

"As part of my official visit to the Russian Federation, our countries signed an important document – an agreement between Rosneft and SOCAR on cooperation in the oil sector. Also, LUKOIL has been successfully operating in Azerbaijan for more than 20 years and is an important investor for the US. In the electricity sector our countries’ power systems are operating in parallel. During my September’s visit we covered the questions relating to the construction of the second stage of the high-voltage power line, which would allow to improve energy exchange further and expand cooperation with third countries in this area," the head of state said.

He pointed out that the North-South Project we are jointly implementing is already yielding its results. This year, compared to last year, we see a more than 100-fold increase in cargo transportation via this corridor, and this is only the beginning.

"We hope this corridor will be one of the most important transport arteries of Eurasia and thus will further promote to rapprochement between our countries and increase our transit potential," the Azerbaijani leader emphasized.

President Aliyev stressed there are very good prospects and cooperation in the banking sector. Such a large Russian bank as VTB operates in Azerbaijan. By the way, Azerbaijan is the largest foreign shareholder of this bank. Also, Gazprombank has recently financed Azerbaijan’s largest industrial project worth more than $400 million.

"The automobile industry is comparatively a new sphere of cooperation. Azerbaijan already produces motor vehicles KAMAZ and Ural. Already hundreds of those vehicles have been produced. We’ve also reached an agreement on production of GAZ motor vehicles in our country. We see quite effective dynamics in all directions and all that shows the spirit and nature of our countries’ relationships," President Aliyev said.

 

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