MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov has described President Vladimir Putin’s phone conversation with his Azerbaijani counterpart, Ilham Aliyev, who called to congratulate the Russian leader on his birthday, as highly significant.
"Indeed, President Aliyev congratulated President Putin on his birthday over the phone," Peskov said, answering a TASS question, adding that the two presidents "also discussed additional topics."
"This is very important," he emphasized.
The two leaders had their last one-on-one phone call in December 2024. The conversation focused on the incident in the Russian airspace with an Azerbaijan Airlines jet, which crashed in Kazakhstan. After that, Putin and Aliyev spoke over the phone in mid-March, with Presidents Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus and Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan taking part. Back then, the Kremlin said that the call had been held in a warm and friendly atmosphere.
A personal meeting between Putin and Aliyev took place on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in China in September. According to Putin, he exchanged "a couple of words" with his Azerbaijani counterpart, although a separate meeting between the two was not scheduled.