Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan mull cooperation in various fields
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have discussed the potential to develop cooperation in political, economic and humanitarian fields.
The consultations were held between the foreign ministries of the two countries in Baku on September 1.
Azerbaijan was represented by a delegation led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov, and the Kazakh delegation was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Samat Ordabayev.
Khalafov praised the successful cooperation between the two countries in a number of regional and international organizations and informed his counterpart about major regional projects initiated by Azerbaijan.
He also praised Kazakhstan's stance on issues related to the territorial integrity and sovereign rights of Azerbaijan in the process of Armenia's accession to the Eurasian Economic Union and the Customs Union.
Ordabayev, for his part, underscored the strategic nature of cooperation between the two neighboring countries.
The parties also mulled issues of bilateral cooperation that are of mutual interest, the issues on international agenda, and the state and prospects of the two countries' joint economic projects in the energy, transportation, logistics, agricultural and industrial sectors.
Ordabayev thanked the Azerbaijani side for its support to Kazakhstan's candidacy for non-permanent membership to the UN Security Council in 2017-2018, and Astana's candidacy to hold the EXPO-2017 exhibition.
The Kazakh delegation was also received by Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and the sides underscored the high level of trust between the two countries and the mutual interest to further strengthen cooperation across the entire spectrum of multifaceted Kazakh-Azerbaijani cooperation.
Mammadyarov expressed consent with the current state of bilateral relations between the two countries and praised Kazakhstan's support for Azerbaijan in settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.
Ordabayev highlighted the consultations held between the foreign ministries of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and stressed the existence of larger potential to develop these relations.
The previous political consultations between the foreign ministries of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were held in January 2014 in Astana.
Azerbaijanis and Kazakhs are both Turkic-speaking nations and share close historical, religious, and cultural ties. Both are the littoral states of the Caspian Sea and possess a common maritime border.
About 130,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis live in Kazakhstan.
The trade turnover between the two countries amounted to $371 million in 2013. Some 52 Kazakh companies operate in Azerbaijan, while 723 companies with the Azerbaijani investment are registered in Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan invested $5.2 million in Azerbaijan in fixed assets in 2002-2013, while only in the last two years Azerbaijan invested $132.8 million of direct investment in Kazakh economy.