Today.Az » Politics » Kyiv interested in Baku's experience of hosting big events [UPDATE]
13 April 2017 [17:23] - Today.Az


By Azernews


By Amina Nazarli

Kyiv City State Administration Head Vitali Klitschko is on a study tour to Baku between April 13 and 14 and intends to familiarize himself with Azerbaijan's experience in holding large-scale events.

So far, Azerbaijan successfully hosted significant events such as the 1st European Games, Formula 1 and Eurovision. Now Baku is going to welcome the 4th Islamic Solidarity Games involving more than 5,000 athletes.  

The Ukrainian mayor was first received by President Ilham Aliyev on April 13, who recalled his recent meeting with Klitschko in Munich expressing his confidence that the visit to Azerbaijan will be interesting and help to strengthen relations between the two countries.

Hailing good prospects for cooperation and exchange of mutual experience between the two countries, President Ilham Aliyev noted that Klitschko’s visit gave him an opportunity to meet his colleagues and got closely familiarized with the ongoing development processes in Baku and view sports facilities being built here.

Hailing his visit to Azerbaijan, Klitschko noted that he has not been to Baku for a long time and that he was deeply impressed by the beauty of the Azerbaijani capital.

He said a great preparatory work has been done in terms of expansion of cooperation between the two countries and capitals.

Klitschko then presented President Aliyev the 16th copy of a limited edition photo album about Muhammad Ali, signed by the boxing legend himself.

Commenting on his visit to the capital, Klitschko told reporters that it is very important that the relations between Ukraine and Azerbaijan develop and become closer.

Head of the Kyiv City State Administration noted that during his meeting with Azerbaijan’s President, they discussed the need to develop business cooperation, relations in the spheres of culture and sports.

He also spoke about the importance of exchanging experience between the two sides in holding major international events.

The Eurovision Song Contest will be held in Kyiv soon and it is very interesting to study the experience of Azerbaijan in order to hold the competition at a high level, added Klitschko.

He said that in general, Kyiv intends to study the experience of Azerbaijan in the area of holding big events, as Baku has hosted many international events in recent years.

Klitschko said that Kyiv is also interested in studying Baku’s experience in the sphere of architectural changes.

The head of the Kyiv City State Administration added that it is planned to open shops selling Ukrainian products in Baku.

He also noted the importance of expanding the network of filling stations of Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR in Ukraine.

Klitschko said that they discussed key spheres of cooperation and it is expected to sign agreements in those areas in the future.

Historically Azerbaijan and Ukraine enjoyed friendly relations. The two countries possess sustainable prospects of bilateral relations in political, economic, energy, transport and humanitarian fields.

Azerbaijan, the largest nation in the South Caucasus with rich hydrocarbon resources, can offer a large variety of products, in particular oil and agricultural products, to Ukraine, which is very interested in their supplies.

Ukraine also actively cooperates with Azerbaijan in the education sphere; about 6,000 Azerbaijani students are currently studying in Ukraine.

Azerbaijan is an important strategic partner of Ukraine. Last year, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited Azerbaijan, and a number of agreements were signed during the visit.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Ukraine made up $234.7 million in the first nine months of 2016. A total of $201.8 million of them were the imports from Ukraine to Azerbaijan, according to Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee.












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