President Aliyev starts Tbilisi visit

/By AzerNews/

By Aynur Karimova

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev started a two-day official visit to Georgia on November 5.

A guard of honor was lined up for the head of state at the Tbilisi International Airport, which was decorated with the national flags of Azerbaijan and Georgia.

The head of state was welcomed by senior state and government officials of Georgia.

In Tbilisi, President Aliyev first visited a statue of the national leader in the culture and recreation park after Heydar Aliyev in the city center.

The head of state laid a wreath at the statue.

President Aliyev also visited the Heroes Memorial in the Georgian capital.

Azerbaijan and Georgia established diplomatic relations in 1992, a year after gaining independence from the Soviet Union. In October 1997, Azerbaijan and Georgia became two of the four founding members of GUAM, an organization that also includes Ukraine and Moldova.

Today the two countries are successfully cooperating in the political field, and strategic cooperation between Azerbaijan and Georgia is developing from day to day.

The two neighboring countries enjoy not only good political relations, but also long-standing and successful cooperation in the energy sector. Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR is deeply involved in the energy market of the neighboring South Caucasus republic.

Azerbaijan has long been one of Georgia’s largest trade partners. The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $1.35 billion in 2014.

Azerbaijan mainly exports petroleum, petroleum oils and gases, gypsum, anhydrite, plaster and other products to Georgia, while motor cars, live bovine animals, bars and rods of iron, and cement are the most imported goods from Georgia to Azerbaijan.