Trade and investment issues to be in focus of Saudi-Azerbaijani talks
By Sara Rajabova
A Saudi Arabian delegation will discuss trade and investment issues in Baku within the third session of the Joint Commission between Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan.
The third session of the Joint Commission on Cooperation in the economic, trade, investment, technical, cultural, sport and youth spheres between Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan will take place in Baku on December 10-11, Saudi media reported.
Samir Maliki, first secretary at the Azerbaijan Embassy has said the 60-member Saudi delegation will be led by Abdullatif Al-Othman, governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA).
According to him, on the Azerbaijan side, Shahin Mustafayev, minister of economic and industry and co-chair of the commission, will lead the country's delegation.
Earlier, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Rasim Rzayev stated that Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia have concluded 12 agreements between them, while 10 more deals are expected to be signed in the near future.
He said four Saudi companies from various fields operate in Azerbaijan, including oil and gas sectors.
Rzayev also said Saudi Arabia is one of the first countries that provided active humanitarian assistance.
According to him, from 1994-1999, Saudi Arabia, starting with the program under King Fahd, has been repeatedly providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and IDPs and provided them food, medicine and other necessities.
He added that several disabled persons of Karabakh war were treated in Saudi Arabia in 1999.
The Saudi Kingdom, represented by the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), provided Azerbaijan with a financial assistance for various projects.
In 2002, within the framework of projects for the construction of secondary schools in Baku, SFD had extended a loan amounting to SR35.7 million to Azerbaijan. In 2005, the Saudi government provided financial assistance worth $50,000 for de-mining operations and also rehabilitation of people in the liberated territories of the country.
Azerbaijan, in 1992 established diplomatic relations with the Kingdom, which was one of the first countries to recognize the independence of Azerbaijan. In 1994, the Azerbaijani Embassy was opened in Riyadh, followed by the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Baku in June 1999.
Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that caused a brutal war in the early 1990s. Long-standing efforts by US, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.
As a result of the military aggression of Armenia, over 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed, 4,866 are reported missing and almost 100,000 were injured, and 50,000 were disabled.