Azernews.Az

By Nazrin Gadimova

The annual conference of the Italy-Azerbaijan Association has been held in Rome to discuss results of its current activities and also inform members of future projects.

Opening the conference, Chairman of the Italy-Azerbaijan Association Paola Casagrande spoke about the association's activities, saying that the exhibition entitled "Colours of Nizami Ganjavi's world", "Solidarity Summer Camp" humanitarian project for the Shusha IDP children, as well as the concert dedicated to the 90th anniversary of National leader Heydar Aliyev and other cultural events contributed to the expansion of bilateral cooperation between the two countries in culture, tourism, and social fields.

Casagrande also informed participants of the event on future projects to be implemented in the years to come, and emphasized the main aim of the projects is to hold a series of events contributing to the cooperation between the two countries.

Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Italy Vagif Sadigov, in turn, said the Italy-Azerbaijan Association was founded in March 2013 aimed to popularize bilateral relations in the fields of culture, tourism and education.

Touching upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Sadigov noted that the Armenian aggression resulted occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijani lands, as well as displacement of over 1 million people.

"The association is capable to raise the Italian public's awareness about the truths on Azerbaijan," he said. "I believe the organization will be even more active in this direction."

Addressing to the conference, MP, Chairman of the Azerbaijan-Italy interparliamentary friendship group Azer Karimli noted that the association achieved success, although it has been created recently.

Karimli added Azerbaijan, being a tolerant country, found itself among five most tolerant countries on the International Tolerance Day and has never witnessed any conflicts on the grounds of religion.

Earlier, Baku hosted an Azerbaijani-Italian business forum, organized by the Italian Embassy in Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), and the Italian Trade Agency (ICE), in collaboration with the National Association of Builders (ANCE) and Federprogetti Association was held in Baku, as well as another Azerbaijani-Italian business meeting.

Moreover, an Azerbaijani-Italian tourism forum was held in Rome on November 18.

Italy recognized Azerbaijan's independence in January 1991. Diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in May 1992, and the legal framework for bilateral cooperation includes 30 documents.

Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee said that Italy remains the largest importer of Azerbaijani goods. Almost a quarter of Azerbaijan's export fell to Italy in January-July 2013, compared to 22 percent in the same period in 2012. Currently, 45 Italian companies operate in Azerbaijan in insurance, banking, trade, and other areas.