Opinions & Interviews

MINSK, 19 November (BelTA) - The visit of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev to Belarus is a new step in building bilateral relations in the future, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said during the talks with Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev on 19 November, BelTA has learned.

“Belarus has been waiting for you. There has been much information about the official visit. There were various reasons for it, sometimes fake reasons. However, it is more than nothing. Even negative information that has nothing to do with the reality can sometimes be positive. There was huge interest before your visit. We have been waiting for it for a long time. A lot has been said about Azerbaijan,” the head of state said.

The president emphasized that Belarus views Azerbaijan as a very friendly brotherly country. The two states maintain very good relations at all levels.

Alexander Lukashenko pointed out a dynamic development of the trade and economic relations. The bilateral trade has already increased almost three and a half times thus far in 2018 as compared to the same period of 2017. “I want to assure you once again that there will never be closed topics in our relations. We used to live in one state. We are very close people. We have common roots in the Soviet period. Perhaps, Belarusian and Azerbaijani people had good relations ages ago,” the president said.

He welcomed Ilham Aliyev in Belarus. “I am very happy that you are here. We need to discuss some things. We maintain good relations in all fields, be it trade, economy, politics, military sector. But we still can do a lot, we can improve these relations,” the head of state said.

Before the official talks Ilham Aliyev and Alexander Lukashenko toured a photo exhibition featuring the most remarkable sightseeing attractions in Belarus at the Palace of Independence.