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Matviyenko will pay a working visit to Azerbaijan to discuss bilateral cooperation

Valentina Matviyenko described Russia’s relations with Azerbaijan as strategic partnership

BAKU, October 2. /TASS/. A delegation of the Russian Federation Council upper parliament house led by its speaker Valentina Matviyenko will pay a working visit to Azerbaijan on Thursday to look at perspectives of closer cooperation with that country’s political leadership.

The programme of the visit includes a meeting with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev and talks with Medzhlis (parliament) speaker Ogtay Asadov.

Speaking with journalists ahead of the visit, Matviyenko described Russia’s relations with Azerbaijan as strategic partnership. “We are actively cooperating in the political, socio-economic, humanitarian and other areas,” she said.

She drew attention to the fact that in 2013 trade turnover between the two countries had reached its historical maximum of 3.6 billion U.S. dollars. “In the first six months of the current year, bilateral trade exceeded 2.2 billion U.S. dollars,” she noted.

Among most promising cooperation areas she cited energy sector, transport, farming, the food industry and establishing joint venture. “A major factor of strengthening Russian-Azeri relations is regional cooperation, first of between border territories,” she said.

While in Azerbaijan, Matviyenko plans to take part in the 4th Baku international humanitarian forum. She stressed the importance of humanitarian cooperation for the development of strategic partnership between the two countries and commended the scale and content of cooperation in this area. She hailed Azerbaijan’s interest to the Russian culture, to the study of the Russian language and welcomed those willing to receive education in Russian universities.