Azernews.Az

Croatia and Azerbaijan have signed three agreements during Croatian President Ivo Josipovic`s official visit to Azerbaijan after talks that aimed to explore new areas of cooperation between the two countries.

These included a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in mine clearance operations as well as agreements on waiving visas for diplomats and on lifting double taxation and preventing tax evasion.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Monday he had discussed with his Croatian counterpart a number of issues of bilateral cooperation. During a broad meeting, President Aliyev expressed confidence that Josipovic`s visit would be very successful and play a great role in developing bilateral relations.

Aliyev said Azerbaijan and Croatia are holding ``a very active political dialog``.

``The level of our political relations is excellent, and your visit is a good indicator of that,`` he said. ``But I believe we have to review other spheres of our life as well. We are discussing economic cooperation and investment opportunities today. In my opinion, successful development of bilateral relations will also facilitate establishing better ties between our regions. Azerbaijan plays a tremendously important role in the Caspian region, and you are one of the leading countries in your region. In short, close ties between our countries will unequivocally have a very positive impact on regional cooperation.``

The Croatian president also believes there are vast opportunities not only for political relations but also economic and cultural cooperation.

``Our delegation is ready to discuss our future economic cooperation in detail,`` Josipovic said. ``We are aware of your far-reaching plans regarding investments in the region. There are good opportunities for collaboration between the South-Eastern Europe and Caucasus regions.``

Josipovic attended the opening of a Croatian honorary consulate in Baku on Tuesday.