At a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said about the importance of 'working on a comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.'

The President of Azerbaijan noted that during this year, Baku and Moscow maintained an active dialogue, the presidents met and often talked on the phone.

"We are very pleased with the dynamics of the development of bilateral relations," Aliyev said.

According to him, many issues were resolved in a bilateral format, and “today we characterize relations as relations of strategic partners. This is not just a phrase, it actually is. And we are determined to further raise the level of our relations in all areas. The trade turnover is growing, there is a very great mutual interest in economic cooperation, including among business circles. And, of course, we are very pleased that our relations cover many areas. We are now implementing 7 roadmaps on practically the overwhelming majority of spheres of economy, transport, humanitarian cooperation."

The Azerbaijani president also expressed condolences to Vladimir Putin in connection with the tragedy at a mine in the Kemerovo region.

The President of Azerbaijan thanked Russia for the assessment on the popularization and preservation of the Russian language in Azerbaijan, including through educational processes, and for the excellent learning conditions for Azerbaijani students in Russia.

According to him, more than 15 thousand citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan study at Russian universities, receive a full-fledged education and automatically become a bridge between countries. Aliyev stated that this week is very indicative - the President received the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, the President of the Academy of Sciences. A representative for humanitarian cooperation was also in Baku with an important mission to establish contacts between cultural figures of Azerbaijan and Armenia with the active participation of the Russian side. A large business conference was held, with more than 30 Russian companies.

“Of course, today we will talk in detail about the Armenian-Azerbaijani problems. I must note that this year, when the Russian peacekeeping forces began to operate on November 10 last year, there have been no serious incidents since then in the zone of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers. There were no clashes, there were no serious events, there were sporadic incidents that were not some kind of systemic crisis.

There were clashes on the border between Azerbaijan and Armenia, but this is not the area of responsibility of the Russian peacekeepers. But nevertheless, of course, this forces us to talk very closely today, including in a trilateral format, on how to control risks, minimize them and work on a comprehensive settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations.

We highly appreciate your personal role in this matter, the role of the High Representatives of the Government of Russia, and of course the role of the Russian peacekeepers in maintaining peace in Karabakh. And we hope that next year the work will be continued and there will be good results," Ilham Aliyev said.