BAKU, March 17. /TASS/. Due to the efforts of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev, relations between two countries have developed into a strategic partnership and alliance, Russia’s upper house speaker Valentina Matviyenko said at a meeting with Milli Majlis (Parliament) Speaker Sahiba Gafarova.
The Federation Council speaker said that during the meeting with Aliyev within the framework of the official visit of the Russian delegation of the upper house of the Russian parliament to Baku, she passed along greetings from his counterpart Vladimir Putin.
"Due to their [presidents’] efforts, due to their will, over the last few years, we have built our relations to the highest level, they have developed into relations of strategic partnership and alliance," said Matviyenko. She noted that everybody remembered well that Azerbaijan's national leader Heydar Aliyev, a popular figure in Russia, spearheaded the development of relations between the two countries.
The speaker of the Federation Council told reporters that her meeting with Aliyev was "informative, substantive, and open." "We received absolutely firm conviction in Azerbaijan’s intention to continue multifaceted cooperation with Russia." "I want to say with full confidence that just like Russia, Azerbaijan is determined to continue building high-level relations of allied partnership, good neighborliness and mutual respect," Matviyenko said. According to her, the relations between the two countries "have a very rich parliamentary agenda." "Therefore, things are looking up, and we feel good about that, as we substantively discussed everything that needed to be discussed, and reached necessary agreements," Matviyenko added.