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President Ilham Aliyev has expressed gratitude to the Lithuanian government and President for supporting Azerbaijan’s plans with respect to close cooperation with the European Union (EU).
He made the remarks during the expanded meeting with Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus?da.
“The official visit of the President is an important factor in bilateral relations and also there is a common understanding about how to develop EU-Azerbaijani ties. We are very grateful to the Lithuanian government and President for supporting Azerbaijan’s plans with respect to close cooperation with the EU. Of course, we need to take this good opportunity to strengthen bilateral ties,” he said.
Recalling the bilateral meeting with the Lithuanian president held earlier this day, Aliyev stated that the discussion took place on different important issues of bilateral cooperation, regional development and the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation.
“We see that there is a big similarity in our views. With respect to the development of bilateral ties, we are very optimistic. We discussed with Mr President the areas in the economic sector which we consider to be promising and today, members of delegations I think already started their communication and we will continue it,” he said.
He emphasized the importance to establish direct personal contacts between people who are responsible for different areas.
“Of course, the business forum is very promising. I know that there will be documents signed but also important is that the direct contacts will be established between our business circles,” he said.
Noting that the areas of potential cooperation discussed are really very broad starting from IT to agriculture, tourism, energy, renewable energy sources, and transportation, he expressed the belief that very good results can be achieved, as the two countries have a very good political background.
The president also noted that they discussed broadly regional configuration and the process of normalization between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
“I know that President is visiting Armenia after Azerbaijan. So, I am sure he will have a full picture after he completes this visit but our position is very open. We want to sign a peace agreement with Armenia. We want to normalize relations and to turn the page of hostility,” he said.
In turn, Lithuanian President Gitanas Naus?da expressed confidence that there is a big potential to increase bilateral cooperation in the fields which are becoming more and more important for Lithuania, adding that those are the sectors with high value-added.
“Fintech, ICT, biotechnologies, but of course, traditional sectors are important too. Food products in Lithuania were traditionally very strong in export of food products and we sell the largest part of our export in European Union market and you can imagine that requirements of European Union market are very high,” he said.