Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Dmitry Medvedev’s expanded meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Statements by Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev after their meeting
Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Dmitry Medvedev’s meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Ilham Aliyev: Mr Medvedev, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Azerbaijan. Your visit will serve the cause of further strengthening friendly and good neighbourly relations between Russia and Azerbaijan. We have a very broad agenda with Russia and the relations between our two countries have enjoyed positive momentum, reaching the level of a strategic partnership.
Your visit takes places against the background of an escalation in the area of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, this conflict has been going on for many years and has yet to be resolved. From time to time we have had to face up to provocations from the Armenian military. An incident of this kind took place earlier this month when Azerbaijan’s communities came under fire, over 400 buildings were damaged, and there were victims, including civilian casualties. Azerbaijan was forced to retaliate in order to prevent further military provocations and restore the ceasefire.
I would like to thank the Russian leadership for its timely and proactive contribution to de-escalating the situation. President of Russia Vladimir Putin had telephone conversations with me, as well as the President of Armenia, while Russia’s Chief of the General Staff contacted his counterparts in the two countries. This mediation effort made it possible to restore the truce. Although the other party doesn’t always respect it, overall we have been witnessing a de-escalation in recent days and view it as a positive development.
It should be noted that Azerbaijan is committed to a peaceful political settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on the norms and principles of international law, and the relevant decisions of the UN Security Council and other international organisations.
Your visit is also a good opportunity to discuss other matters on the agenda, including relations in trade, the economy, energy, transport and humanitarian affairs.
Let me reiterate that the relations between our two countries have been enjoying positive momentum, and are known for their friendliness, sincerity and mutual respect.
Once again, welcome to Azerbaijan.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you, Mr Aliyev. First of all, I would like to thank you for this meeting. I haven’t visited this country for a long time. It is fair to say that this visit was long overdue. As you have said, our two countries are strategic partners. We have a number of joint economic and humanitarian projects, and there are many political issues of mutual interest that we discuss. It is obvious that we must take advantage of this visit to the maximum degree to push forward this agenda.
Of course, the current situation is anything but simple. You have mentioned the escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
I must admit that this is naturally a matter of grave concern for Russia, since relations with both Azerbaijan and Armenia are extremely important for us. At the same time, as a member of the Minsk Group, and as a responsible state and permanent member of the UN Security Council, Russia is committed to approaches that were outlined in the course of procedures promoted by the UN and other mechanisms.
We hope that the truce that has been achieved at this point will last, enabling the parties to discuss settlement-related issues at the negotiating table.
There was a time when I contributed to this effort, as I’m sure you remember. Let’s hope that these efforts do not end up in smoke and are not in vain. In any case, let me assure you that on its part the Russian Federation will do everything it can to this effect.
I would like to convey to you the best wishes from Vladimir Putin. Consultations have been taking place and are set to continue. You and I will discuss this and other issues, since the relations between our two countries are multifaceted, so there are always things to talk about. Thank you very much for this meeting.
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Dmitry Medvedev’s expanded meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Dmitry Medvedev’s expanded meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev
Ilham Aliyev: Mr Medvedev, we attach great importance to your visit. I’m confident that your visit will serve the cause of strengthening the strategic partnership between Russia and Azerbaijan and settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Once again, I would like to thank the Russian Federation for its proactive mediation efforts with a view of de-escalating the situation. Let’s now move on to discuss other aspects of our relations.
Our relations have been enjoying positive momentum in many areas. Although trade has decreased slightly for objective reasons, there is potential for stepping up cooperation in areas like trade, economy, energy and transport. There is in fact great potential in these areas. It goes without saying that our countries have a positive track record of cooperation on cultural, educational and humanitarian issues. This is what underpins our relations. My colleagues and I look forward to a detailed discussion of specific aspects of trade, economic and of course political relations. Once again, welcome to Azerbaijan.
Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you very much, Mr Aliyev. We have just discussed the most challenging issue and also touched upon a number of other regional matters. Thankfully, the spectre of our bilateral relations and ties isn’t just about problems. There is also a great number of areas where we have advanced cooperation, a genuine strategic partnership. We can make additional efforts to better coordinate our respective economies in order to achieve better results. It is true that last year bilateral trade declined, although in real terms the decrease was just a few percentage points, since this decline was attributable to a large extent to value indicators and the change in the prices of goods that we trade with each other. Nevertheless, it means that we must revitalise a number of projects. Let’s discuss these issues, as well as humanitarian cooperation.
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Statements by Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev after their meeting
Transcript:
Dmitry Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev make statements for the press after their meeting
Ilham Aliyev: Mr Prime Minister, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I want to once again extend our warmest welcome to Mr Medvedev. Welcome to Azerbaijan!
We highly appreciate your visit. During our talks today, which were held in the expanded format and privately, we discussed important aspects of bilateral cooperation as well as regional issues. Naturally, we also spoke in detail about the settlement of the Azerbaijani-Armenian conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, considering its recent escalation.
We appreciate that Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has come to Baku on an official visit.
I invited Mr Medvedev to visit Azerbaijan, and I know that a visit was on his agenda. But we see the fact that he has come on a visit at this time as additional evidence of Russia’s friendly and partner-like attitude to Azerbaijan. We know that Mr Medvedev planned to make an official visit to Armenia on 7 April, and we highly appreciate his decision to come to Azerbaijan on 8 April in view of the situation in the conflict zone. This is fresh proof that Russia highly values its relations with Armenia and Azerbaijan alike. The same is true for us; relations with Russia are very important to us. We highly appreciate and value these relations, and we try to further develop and strengthen them.
Regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, unfortunately, no solution has been found to it over the past years, and all these years part of Azerbaijani territory has been occupied. Not just Nagorno-Karabakh but also seven adjacent districts have been occupied for over 20 years. The Azeri population has been forced to leave this territory, and buildings and historical monuments have been destroyed. There are over 700,000 internally displaced people in Azerbaijan who come from this territory. Taken together with over 250,000 refugees from Armenia, we had one of the world’s largest numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons in 1994, when a ceasefire was negotiated.
There are mechanisms for settling this conflict, and there are four UN Security Council resolutions that request that the Armenian occupation forces pull out of Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, they have not been implemented.
Russia, as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, is playing a major role in the settlement of this conflict. We highly appreciate this role. This is especially important at the time of the latest Armenian armed provocation, when our positions were attacked and damage was done to our towns: Over 400 buildings located close to the line of contact have been damaged, and several dozen of them have been completed destroyed. People, including civilians, have been killed.
In this situation, Russia has taken the initiative to de-escalate the situation. President of Russia Vladimir Putin called me and the President of Armenia and expressed his concern and desire to help the parties in de-escalating the conflict. We reacted positively to these signals. The leadership of Russia’s General Staff also helped organise a meeting between the chiefs of the general staffs of the three countries in Moscow; they eventually agreed to cease hostilities. We are strictly abiding by this decision and hope Armenia will also remain committed to it.
I would like to say again that Azerbaijan is committed to the negotiation process, has been negotiating for 20 years in fact. Armenia’s accusations of Azerbaijan being the initiator of the escalation are absolutely groundless, as even the nature of the clashes that took place in early April suggests we had no intention whatsoever to launch large-scale military action, we never did and never will. We were simply defending our outposts, defended the peaceful life of our citizens. Therefore, we are confident that a settlement to the conflict should benefit Azerbaijan and, definitely, Armenia, too. Russia, as a neighbour and friend of both countries, is also interested in an early settlement.
We will continue the negotiation process. We welcome the initiative of the Minsk Group co-chairs, who recently visited the region, and we hope that Armenia will eventually heed the appeals of the Minsk Group leaders about the need to change the status quo. Changing the status quo and starting the de-occupation of Azerbaijan’s territory are the main conditions for a comprehensive settlement of the conflict. As soon as this happens, there will be peace, calm and cooperation in the region. This will benefit all of the region’s countries.
As for the other agenda, today we thoroughly discussed economic issues, trade and economic relations, energy, transport, and cultural cooperation. There has been positive dynamics, improvement in all of these areas. The intergovernmental commission focused on each of these areas and is working with great efficiency.
We consider relations with Russia strategic and see the same attitude on the part of the Russian Government.
Mr Medvedev's visit again confirms the nature of these relations, and makes a great contribution to the strengthening of our cooperation.
Once again, Mr Medvedev, thank you for being with us today. We wish you all the best. I would like to express my deep respect for the Russian people. Good luck and prosperity to the Russian state. Thank you.
Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Aliyev, representatives of the media. To begin with, I would like to say thank you to Mr Aliyev for a warm welcome and hospitality that we always enjoy in Azerbaijan.
We have known each other for a long time and we are indeed good partners. Our strategic and mutually beneficial partnership allows us to discuss any issue in a confidential and trust-based manner, just like it was today. Why? Because we do value this level of relationship with Azerbaijan. This is a tradition of friendship and mutual understanding that has formed over centuries and today benefits our peoples.
We actually covered the entire agenda. I will say a few words about the economic issues. We are currently experiencing a complicated stage in our economic development. By “we” I mean both Russia and Azerbaijan. The macroeconomic situation, the impact of external markets, particularly the oil and gas market, and currency rate fluctuations are influencing the economic agenda. Therefore, our mutual trade turnover – which has always been quite significant – is slightly lower recently. Mr Aliyev and I exchanged our ideas. We believe that the decrease is not dramatic and in physical volumes is only a few percentage points. In terms of value indicators, the decrease is larger. However, we can compensate by making an effort to increase our cooperation in trade, the economy and investment. We have the necessary prerequisites for this. We need to look for new projects and encourage the work of intergovernmental commissions. Our colleagues are working hard regardless and I would like to thank them on behalf of the Russian Government.
We have just agreed to step up the activities of the Russian-Azerbaijani Business Council, as the partnership should transcend governments and include businesses as well. We have a number of major energy and transport projects. We should intensify our work across all these fields to boost our respective economies.
We also run projects abroad. In particular, Iran holds a lot of promise now. Our presidents discussed this. We have just spoken about it with Ilham Aliyev. I think Iran may play an important part in intra-Caspian and regional cooperation.
There are other energy projects as well, such as in the electricity and other sectors, which can also contribute to growing our countries’ economies.
Humanitarian cooperation remains a key factor in our overall cooperation, especially considering our history, mutual interest, and the possibility of expanding our tourist contacts, particularly in the current situation. All of that remains part of our agenda.
As was rightly stated, the visit of the Russian Government delegation was planned in advance, but it is held earlier than planned, because of the events in the conflict zone. I believe it was an absolutely correct decision on our part to pay a visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan. I’m pleased to know that our partners think likewise, as we value our relations with our neighbours, and, in this sense, it is imperative to maintain a proper balance in all of our contacts.
With regard to our assessment of what happened, the President of Russia has already made a statement on that account, and I spoke on this subject as well. Our Foreign Minister also had talks with President Aliyev in Baku yesterday. We are wholly committed to a peaceful settlement of this conflict. Major forces have been put to work to achieve this. We all took part in it. Yours truly was actively engaged in this work at some point as well. I believe there’s no alternative to negotiations and a peaceful settlement, so we, of course, welcome the recently agreed upon ceasefire arrangements. We hope that this will be a lasting ceasefire that will lay a solid foundation for unfreezing the talks and achieving further progress in the framework of the approaches that have formed in recent years, bringing together the positions of the parties, and looking for compromise solutions. Since no conflict has ever ended in victory of either opposing side, it is always a complex series of compromises that have to be agreed upon to defuse a conflict and establish lasting peace on earth.
As members and co-chairs of the Minsk Group, we are willing to continue this work. As the President of Azerbaijan has just mentioned, we are actively involved in this process. The current visit of the governmental delegation is also due to these factors. I hope this will help build confidence and achieve the best possible result. Russia is no less than Azerbaijan or Armenia interested in peace in this region. I want everyone to understand it.
