President Aliyev congratulates Romano Prodi

The message, in particular, says:

"We attach special importance to development of relations between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Italian Republic in the spirit of friendship, mutual understanding and confidence. Our fruitful cooperation on this basis - both bilateral and within international structures - gives us deep satisfaction.

We highly appreciate your country's activities in the OSCE Minsk group, which are aimed at peaceful resolution of our people's most painful problem – the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh, Italy's stance on the issue and support of territorial integrity of Azerbaijan subjected to a military aggression.

It with a sense of satisfaction that I mention our constantly expanding business relations based of the principles of mutually beneficial cooperation, in particular, Italy's direct participation in the large-scale transnational energy projects being implemented by Azerbaijan.

I hope we will continue our efforts towards development of our interstate relations, as well as all-round cooperation in the framework of the European structures.

It is always a pleasure to recall the meetings, discussions and opinion exchanges we had.

Taking this opportunity, I would like to invite you to pay an official visit to Azerbaijan at any time, convenient to you.

Once again, I offer to you my congratulations and best wishes for your good health, happiness and successes in your activities aimed at welfare of the friendly people of Italy."