10:52 - 12.02.2025

---

February 12, Fineko/abc.az. “You know, last year, China and Azerbaijan officially became strategic partners. After the meeting between the President of China and myself last summer, a corresponding Declaration on Strategic Partnership was adopted. This is a very important political step in our bilateral relationship,” said President Ilham Aliyev during his interview with China's CGTN news channel.

“Strategic partnership is a very high level of mutual trust and cooperation. We are looking forward to expanding our partnership with China, including in the issues related to our membership in different international organizations, not only the WTO.

And also recently, we have exempted Chinese citizens from visa requirements. So, Chinese citizens do not need now even to apply for an electronic visa. Hopefully, Azerbaijani citizens will also soon have this opportunity. This will increase the number of tourists. This will definitely increase people-to-people contact, and public diplomacy will play its role. Now we work through official diplomatic channels - political, economic, trade, investments, connectivity. But public diplomacy will add a lot,” noted the head of state.