President Aliyev: Azerbaijan, Russia set to increase cargo flow

By Azernews

By Ayya Lmahamad

President Ilham Aliyev has said that Azerbaijan and Russia are effectively cooperating in international transport projects and are set to increase the cargo flow between the two countries.

Aliyev made the remarks in an interview with Interstate Mir” TV channel on May 6.

“We have very effective cooperation in transport sphere. We are jointly implementing an important international transport project "North-South". Almost all infrastructure projects related to this corridor have been implemented both on Russian and Azerbaijani territory. We are now working on issues related to transport and logistics directions to increase the cargo flow and thus create more favorable conditions for the countries that are our neighbors and strengthen the transit potential,” Aliyev noted.

Aliyev underlined that in economic terms, the mutual trade turnover has been growing in recent years, which also indicates the intensification of economic cooperation. Hundreds of companies with the Russian capital operate in Azerbaijan in various sectors of the economy, he said.

“Russian-Azerbaijani relations are characterized by both sides as strategic partnership relations. If we look at the broad agenda of our relations, we will see almost all spheres of life. We have very intense political interaction, a lot of meetings at the level of heads of state that are held regularly,” the president said.

He also stressed that Azerbaijan and Russia are currently working on implementation of seven road maps for the development of bilateral cooperation.

“In a bilateral format, we work on realization of seven road maps which are very concrete projects covering important spheres. In each direction there is the accurate plan and time periods, as well as instructions of the presidents for the realization of road maps. All this will bring our countries and peoples closer and strengthen the level of cooperation, growth of trade turnover, mutual investments. This will lead to an improvement in the welfare of our peoples,” the president stressed.

Moreover, Aliyev noted there are many bilateral projects in the energy sector.

“I should note the unification of the energy systems of Russia and Azerbaijan. In case of accidents in Azerbaijan or Russia we immediately help each other and show solidarity,” he said.

At the same time, he expressed regret that due to the coronavirus pandemic there would be a big drop in tourist flow from Russia to Azerbaijan in 2020 and vice versa.

“The growth of the tourist flow constantly showed good figures. But taking into account the pandemic, the borders of our countries are closed by mutual consent, so perhaps the tourist flow and the sphere of tourism will be one of the last spheres that will leave the quarantine regime,” the president concluded.