Azernews.Az

Latvian President Raimonds Vējonis has reaffirmed his country`s backing for Azerbaijan`s stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as he received credentials of Ambassador Javanshir Akhundov.

He stressed that Latvia has supported and will always support the position of Azerbaijan on the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a fragile ceasefire in 1994. Since the war, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions. More than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities.

President Vējonis also touched upon the bilateral relations and expressed Latvia`s interest in strengthening cooperation with Azerbaijan in all areas.

The president recalled his visits to Baku in the capacity of the Minister of Environment and Minister of Defense. The Latvian president also expressed his intention to visit Azerbaijan in 2017. The Azerbaijani-Latvian business forum is expected to be held as part of the visit.

Akhundov, in turn, said Azerbaijan highly appreciated Latvia`s unwavering position on the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute.

The Ambassador emphasized that Latvia will host the Days of Azerbaijani Culture in 2017.

The sides underlined that expansion of bilateral ties in the transport sector is very important for economic relations between the two countries.

Azerbaijan-Latvia relations are developing yearly and reciprocal visits play a huge role in taking bilateral relations forward. There is a legal framework of Azerbaijan-Latvia relations. The two countries have so far signed about 30 documents.

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