Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

There is a great potential for further developing relations between Azerbaijan and the Czech Republic.

Azerbaijan’s Prime Minister Artur Rasizade made the remark, as he met chairman of the House of Deputies of the Czech Parliament Jan Hamacek, who is on an official visit to Baku from March 13.

The sides discussed the bilateral relations between the two countries, hailing the great potential for the development of relations and offering to continue them at the level of strategic cooperation.

Rasizade emphasized that the Czech Republic is a reliable partner for Azerbaijan in several fields.

The Premier said the Central European country and Azerbaijan should widely operate in non-oil sector, adding there is fruitful condition for cooperation in machine engineering, military, banking, finance, agriculture, tourism, and infrastructure fields.

Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Rasizade hailed the Czech Republic`s support to Azerbaijan.

The sides stressed the importance of solving the conflict within the norms of international law, territorial integrity, and inviolability of borders.

Hamacek voiced readiness of Czech businessmen for overall cooperation with Azerbaijan.

Further, Hamacek met with Chairman of Azerbaijan’s Parliament Ogtay Asadov to mull cooperation of the legislative bodies.

Asadov stressed the role of reciprocal visits and meetings of heads of state in developing the bilateral ties. He noted that the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership signed between the two states would strengthen the legal base that would pave the way for closer cooperation between the two countries.

He hailed the role of friendship groups in the parliaments of the two countries, praising the Khojaly massacre resolution of the foreign relations committee of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic.

Talking about the economic cooperation, Asadov said the Czech Republic invested over $1 billion in Azerbaijan.

He added that the trade turnover between the two sides made up $610 million last year, noting that 31.5 percent of the Czech Republic's demand for oil is provided by Azerbaijan.

As part of the three-day visit to Baku, Czech entrepreneurs met Azerbaijani businessmen to eye prospects for establishing business relations in new areas.

The meeting, co-organized by the Economy Ministry and Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation, brought together more than 50 Azerbaijani and Czech businessmen from a variety of fields, including tourism, industry, logistics, banking, pharmacology and energy.

Later on this day, Azerbaijan`s Defense Industry Minister Yavar Jamalov received Member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech republic, Chairman of the Defense Committee David Kadner to explore ways of developing the bilateral cooperation in defense industry.

Jamalov hailed the development of the ties between the two countries in a variety of fields.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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