Statement of Head of State K.Tokayev for media following talks with President of Republic of Azerbaijan I.Aliyev

Dear Ilham Heydar oghlu!

Ladies and gentlemen!

First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for the invitation to pay an official visit to the wonderful city of Baku. Today we held fruitful talks on a wide range of issues. As the President of Azerbaijan rightly noted, they did not see any problems or obstacles. On the contrary, they expressed a mutual desire to increase efforts in order to achieve concrete results, whether in the economic sphere or on the humanitarian track.

I would like to emphasize that, having victoriously restored territorial integrity in accordance with the Charter and resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, Azerbaijan has entered a new era in its development. And this is the great personal merit of the national leader of Azerbaijan, the President of our brotherly country, Ilham Heydar oglu Aliyev. Taking this opportunity, I would like to once again note that under your strong leadership, Azerbaijan today achieves noticeable results in its development. We are observing these trends in your country and are sincerely happy. We also see how Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur are dynamically reviving. Thanks to your personal efforts, this region will turn into a prosperous region in the near future, and there is no doubt about it.

Kazakhstan, for its part, is ready to make a certain contribution to this noble cause. Presentation of our gift took place today. On behalf of the Kazakh people, by the end of next year, an art school named after Kurmangazy will be built in the city of Fizuli.

It is also symbolic that my visit is taking place on the eve of the anniversary date - the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. Literally in three days we will celebrate this date. And I must say that, by virtue of my official duties, I was from the very beginning in the process of developing cooperation between our countries, we have come a long way. We started from scratch and today we are talking with good reason about the strategic partnership and alliance between our countries. The Declaration on the deepening and diversification of this cooperation was signed - this is a real step forward.

A trusting political dialogue has been established between us, our states cooperate on international platforms, primarily in the United Nations, the OSCE, and the Organization of Turkic States. Taking this opportunity, I would like to express my gratitude to you, dear Ilham Heydar oglu, for your continued support of the Kazakh initiative to convene a Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia. In mid-October of this year, the CICA summit will be held in our capital. We look forward to your personal participation in this very important forum. Your presence on this forum will have a very positive effect in terms of achieving the desired result.

I would also like to note that last year the volume of mutual trade increased by 3 times, that is, the positive dynamics continues. But in absolute terms, this result does not look impressive enough, so an agreement was reached today that the parties will make every effort to increase the absolute figures of mutual trade. Perhaps in the near future we will be able to talk about reaching the billion mark.

It is gratifying that the cultural and humanitarian agenda is being saturated with joint efforts, which contributes to even greater rapprochement between our peoples. Today I put forward an initiative to hold a decade of Azerbaijani culture in our country. I have no doubts about the popularity of this event, because our people missed the Azerbaijani culture, missed the outstanding figures of your art. This event, I hope it will take place, is doomed to success.

In addition, we agreed that cultural figures and delegations will be exchanged between our countries. We are grateful that one of the streets in the city of Sumgayit bears the name of the outstanding representative of the Kazakh people Akhmet Baitursynov. It is noteworthy that Akhmet Baitursynov was a delegate of the first All-Union Congress of Turkologists in 1926 right here - in the city of Baku. This fact again shows that there have always been very close ties between our countries and peoples. You know that at one time one of the streets of our capital was named after an outstanding statesman, the great son of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev. The city is developing, and now, from the position of today, this street does not look so impressive. Therefore, I made a decision and gave a corresponding instruction to the akim of the capital so that he proposed to name one of the large streets or avenues of our capital after Heydar Aliyev, a person whom we respect very much and sincerely in our country. That is, we will transfer the name of the street to a more suitable object. I believe that this is quite justified.

Today we spoke in great detail about the development of the transport and logistics sphere of cooperation between our states. Relevant instructions have been given to our governments, and there is no doubt that concrete results will be achieved in this direction. In any case, there is an absolute interest on the part of Kazakhstan in the development of this type of cooperation.

I would like to highlight the agricultural sector. Here we have complementarity. You know that Kazakhstan has the ability to supply grain, wheat and other types of agricultural products. In turn, we have a need to import agricultural products from Azerbaijan - fruits and vegetables. A number of Kazakh producers are ready to increase deliveries to Azerbaijan of 100 commodity items totaling more than $300 million, so we need to ensure the logistics of this trade. This is the task of the governments of our countries, which we agreed on today.

Otherwise, I would like to note that I assess the results of my visit as very successful. I would like to express gratitude, first of all, to the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Heydar oghlu Aliyev, as well as to his Government for the very fruitful work towards deepening our cooperation.

As for Kazakhstan, there will be no obstacles from our side, we will work very productively. We are absolutely justified in talking about the strategic nature of relations between our countries. The word "strategic" obliges a lot, here we need to put a specific meaning, specific content, we must work on this.

I remain very optimistic about the future of our cooperation. Once again, thank you for your hospitality and the creation of the necessary conditions for work.