Mikhail Mishustin held talks with Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov.
From the transcript:
Russia-Azerbaijan talks. Mikhail Mishustin and Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov
Russia-Azerbaijan talks. Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov
Russian-Azerbaijani talks
Russia-Azerbaijan talks. Signing documents
Russia-Azerbaijan talks. Mikhail Mishustin and Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov
Mikhail Mishustin at Russia-Azerbaijan talks
Russia-Azerbaijan talks. Mikhail Mishustin and Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Ali Asadov
Ali Asadov: Esteemed Mr Mishustin, colleagues, I welcome you to Azerbaijan! Welcome. We are happy to see all of you.
You visited the capital of Azerbaijan, Baku, today for the first time. You said many nice things when we met. Thank you for these kind words about our country and our city.
Mr Mishustin, I would also like to express my gratitude to you for accepting our invitation and for being here today with a visit to the capital of Azerbaijan.
This is your first visit to Azerbaijan as Prime Minister. I am confident that it will be successful and will give new impetus to the relations between our countries.
Today, together, we participated in the 11th Azerbaijan-Russia Interregional Forum. We hope it will play a significant role in the development of interregional business cooperation between our countries.
Tomorrow you will also have a meeting with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.
It is gratifying that our contacts are so intensive.
I note that this is the fourth meeting between representatives of Azerbaijan and Russia in less than three months. On 27-28 October, Baku successfully hosted the jubilee 15th Verona Eurasian Economic Forum, which was attended by a representative Russian delegation.
Azerbaijan attaches great importance to its relations with Russia. On 4 April this year, we marked the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
Over the past decades, thanks to the efforts of our Presidents, Ilham Aliyev and Vladimir Putin, our interstate relations have reached the level of strategic partnership.
It is noteworthy that this year, on 22February, we signed the Declaration on Allied Interaction, which took our relations to a higher level.
Today’s signing of a number of bilateral documents will be the logical result of our active and productive work. I am confident that these documents will open new opportunities for the enhancement of our cooperation in trade and other economic areas, and in transport and healthcare.
It is encouraging that our economic ties are steadily developing. They are very diversified. Azerbaijan is a major trade partner for Russia in the South Caucasus. As you mentioned, our mutual trade has grown by more than 20 percent over the 10 months of this year to about $3 billion. This creates the right conditions for further progress.
We are also satisfied with the steady development of transport and transit. In this area, we are reliable partners for each other, and thanks to our joint efforts, uninterrupted transit freight traffic has been ensured, even during the pandemic.
The total volume of cargo traffic between Azerbaijan and Russia has grown by almost 22 percent over the first 10 months of this year. Russian cargo transit volumes through Azerbaijan’s transport corridors also grew considerably. Since the beginning of the year, transit has increased by 98 percent. The North-South International Transport Corridor is a top priority, and we are working closely with you on ensuring its progressive development.
On the whole, the Azerbaijani-Russian strategic partnership agenda is very broad, and we are ready to make every effort to further build up mutually beneficial cooperation in the entire range of relations.
Mr Mishustin, it gives me great pleasure to give the floor to you.
Mikhail Mishustin: Mr Asadov, friends,
I am sincerely happy to meet with you again during my first visit to Azerbaijan as the Prime Minister of Russia.
I would like to cordially thank you and all colleagues for the traditionally warm reception for the Russian delegation. I mentioned earlier that upon returning from Azerbaijan, the Russian representatives, our governors always talk about the warm reception and very productive cooperation we had here today.
Mr Asadov, we are in constant contact with each other. In late August, we met at the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council meeting in Kyrgyzstan, where you were invited as a guest of honour. In Moscow in October, we both attended the Caspian Economic Forum.
Our intergovernmental dialogue is aimed at resolving the challenges that are facing us, primarily, on developing our trade and economic cooperation, the tasks that President of Russia Vladimir Putin and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev have put before us. They concern priority areas like industrial cooperation and transport, energy and cultural-humanitarian interaction.
We in Russia sincerely value our good relations, our friendship, neighbourliness and our alliance with the fraternal Azerbaijani people. We are interested in raising our cooperation to an even higher level and filling it with new content, specific projects in the interests of our citizens.
Russia is one of Azerbaijan's leading trade partners. We both said at the forum today that in January-October, our trade increased by 20 percent over the same period last year to $3 billion. We hope to set a record by the end of this year.
There are over 900 joint ventures with Russian capital in Azerbaijan. Of these, about 300 are being implemented with only Russian capital. Azerbaijani businesses are also building up their presence in Russia. We must fully use the advantageous geographical location of our countries in the centre of Eurasia and the Caspian Region to step up the development of our transport and transit potential. Mr Asadov, we spoke today about these promising areas. First, we are referring to the building of the railway, highway and marine infrastructure on the North-South international transport corridor. This will connect Russia and Azerbaijan with the Persian Gulf countries, India, China, Africa and the Asia-Pacific states.
Work is underway in this area. It is based on a relevant roadmap. We plan to increase cargo traffic on the Western section of the North-South international corridor to as much as 15 million tonnes per year by 2030.
We attach particular importance to implementing the agreements between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia on unblocking economic and transport connections in the South Caucasus. We are confident that the fulfilment of new infrastructure projects meets the interests of all states in the South Caucasus.
Ties between the regions in Russia and Azerbaijan are playing a big role in expanding trade and economic cooperation. We just spoke at the 11th interregional forum meeting. We hope that practical results will become specific new projects and contracts. We are creating and developing new joint ventures, especially involving small and medium businesses.
Mr Asadov, we have a busy and substantive agenda. As you have said, following the talks we will sign many agreements on developing cooperation in many areas.
I would like to convey my gratitude to you again for your traditional hospitality.
Thank you.
Documents signed following the talks
The following documents were signed following the talks:
1. Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on information cooperation in the field of combating the legalisation of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism in the course of the cross-border movement of cash and (or) monetary instruments by individuals.
Signed by: Head of the Federal Customs Service Vladimir Bulavin and Acting Chair of the State Customs Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Bagirov.
2. Agreement between the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Russian Federation) and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan on cooperation to ensure epidemiological wellbeing in terms of plague on the territory of near-border natural foci.
Signed by: Head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare Anna Popova and Minister of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan Teimur Musayev.
3. Agreement between the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare (Russian Federation) and the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan on cooperation in the implementation of International Health Regulations.
Signed by: Head of the Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare Anna Popova and Minister of Health of the Republic of Azerbaijan Teimur Musayev.
4. Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on cooperation for the coordinated development of checkpoints at the state border between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan and the transport routes to them.
Signed by: Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev and Minister of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan Rashad Nabiyev.
5. Memorandum between the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the development of cooperation in the training and retraining of personnel in the transport sector.
Signed by: Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation Vitaly Savelyev and Minister of Digital Development and Transport of the Republic of Azerbaijan Rashad Nabiyev.
6. Memorandum between the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of the Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan on cooperation in the field of shipbuilding.
Signed by: First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Vasily Osmakov and Minister of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Mikayil Jabbarov.
7. Minutes of the bilateral meeting between the delegations of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan under the co-chairs of the Intergovernmental Commission for Economic Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan on the Russian-Azerbaijani state border on 26 October 2022.
Signed by: Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Overchuk and Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev.
