“There are firm traditions of friendship and good neighborliness between our countries. Today we are viewing the Azerbaijan-Russia relations as a strategic partnership. I believe that the relations between our countries have now reached the highest level across their history”, First Vice President of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva noted in the interview given to the Russian media as the result of her visit to Russia. Regular meetings between Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia define a multi vector nature of our relations, and give momentum to development of mutual ties almost in all areas.
According to the First Lady of Azerbaijan, the last year Russia-Azerbaijan goods turnover totaled $2.6billion and features a 19% increase. A 26% growth has already been seen in the 9 months of this year. Good figures are also seen in reciprocal investments. The size of Russian investments in Azerbaijan makes $4.9 billion. Azerbaijan invested $1.2 billion in the Russian economy. It is very encouraging that in addition to a traditional cooperation in the oil sector, we recently have had a big number of joint projects developing in the field of machine building, production equipment, chemical industry, pharmaceuticals, energy sector and transport field.
“Among concrete examples, I can cite SOCAR Polymer, modernization of Azerkimya enterprises, assembling and production of “KAMAZ” trucks, construction of the first stage of the P-Pharm medications plant. A transit-transport system is an important and promising direction in our cooperation. Creating the North-South international transportation corridor, which shall link the western European markets with the Asian consumers, is one of the most important projects here. The volume of cargo transportation along this route, reaching over 7,000km, has increased by 8 times since the launch of implementation of this project last year and the growth within 6 months of this year totaled 60%. A new 4 lane highway from Baku to the Russian border will be launched within the framework of this project next year. A joint bridge project across the near-border Samur River will have been implemented and commissioned by the end of this year. Read the full interview at https://tass.ru/interviews/7188943.
