Azernews.Az

By Vafa Ismayilova

President Ilham Aliyev has said that after making major achievements in the economic and energy sectors Azerbaijan and Italy need to find new areas of practical cooperation, Azertag reported on June 12.

He made the remarks while receiving newly-appointed Italian ambassador Claudio Taffuri's credentials in Baku on June 12.

"We need to look to the future and the friendly countries need to find new areas of practical cooperation. I am sure that it will happen because Italian companies are among the first foreign companies which started to work with respect to the reconstruction of the liberated territories," he said.

The president described those projects as the ones of big and symbolic importance, which also involve the projects of economic development and infrastructure.

"In the energy sector, [in the sector of] power generation, Italian companies are already involved in the process of reconstruction of destroyed hydropower generations, in other areas, in areas of manufacture and production. So this really demonstrates that we are strategic partners not only on paper, in documents but in reality," he said.

Aliyev expressed the hope that the newly-appointed ambassador will be very active in Azerbaijan to further promote bilateral cooperation in different areas. He noted that Azerbaijan and Italy have long-term sustainable, successful bilateral cooperation.

"You know all the history of our bilateral relations, all the important milestones, and of course, signing of documents on strategic partnership actually reflected the substance of our cooperation. This really elevates the level of partnership to a very high level. And we see the practical implementation of this important political development because it’s obvious that without strong political ties we wouldn’t be able to achieve already big progress in different areas," the head of state said.

Aliyev stressed that political dialogue and strong political ties lay the foundation for cooperation in different areas and many Italian companies are actively working in Azerbaijan, implementing important projects for Azerbaijan.

"They are large-scale projects worth billions of dollars and there are more opportunities in the future. Of course, we started with the energy cooperation, and oil supply from Azerbaijan makes Italy our biggest trading partner. But I hope that we will find other areas in order to expand our trade turnover," he said.

The president added that the implementation of the Southern Gas Corridor created absolutely new format for long-term cooperation.

"Italy becomes one of the major markets for our natural gas, and oil. These are really important achievements in our bilateral cooperation. The Southern Gas Corridor is really a historical project of historical importance and big complexity," he added.

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

--

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz