Azernews.Az

By Gulgiz Dadashova

President of Latvia Andris Bērziņš was given an official welcome to Azerbaijan on Wednesday, AzerTac state news agency reported.

A guard of honor was lined up for the Latvian leader at the square decorated with the national flags of Azerbaijan and Latvia.

President Ilham Aliyev welcomed President Andris Bērziņš.

The presidents inspected a ceremonial guard of honor. The state anthems of Latvia and Azerbaijan were performed.

Azerbaijan's state and government officials were introduced to President Andris Bērziņš, while members of the Latvian delegation to President Ilham Aliyev.

The presidents posed for photographs.

Following the official welcoming ceremony, Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Andris Bērziņš met in private.

Later, the presidents have been joined by their delegations for an expanded meeting.

Speaking at the expanded meeting, President Aliyev first welcomed his Latvian counterpart saying that a great importance is attached to his visit.

"I am sure that the visit will have very good results and Latvia-Azerbaijan relations will further develop successfully," the president said.

President Aliyev said Azerbaijan and Latvia have very good cooperation and this cooperation covers almost all spheres.

"Both our political and economic relations are developing. We have very active cooperation in international organizations as well, and we support each-other. So, there is no problem between the two countries. We should only strengthen our joint efforts to achieve better cooperation," he said voicing confidence that talks and exchange of opinions during the visit will create a good basis for solving all issues.

In turn, President Bērziņš voiced pleasure of being in Azerbaijan.

"We have special interest in this visit. Our interest is so great that we particularly ordered a large plane. Before the visit I collected some information about your country. I learned the development path that your country has gone through in the last 20 years. This definitely makes a deep impression," he said.

The President went on saying that soon Azerbaijan and Latvia will mark the 20th anniversary of establishment of the diplomatic ties.

"I think that we have already created very good and excellent relations in all spheres. This is a good foundation for our closer economic cooperation in the future," he noted.

Following the expanded meeting, the presidents have given a joint press conference.

The Heads of State made speeches, before taking questions from journalists.