BAKU, May 11. /TASS/. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has pointed out that his country is enjoying positive dynamics in relations with Russia.
"It has been half a year since your last visit and we are pleased to point out the ongoing positive dynamics in our relations," Aliyev said during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Aliyev recalled that he held a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on May.
"We have congratulated each other personally with our common Victory, the victory over fascism," he said.
The Azerbaijani leader stressed that his country looks forward to continue cooperation with Russia in order to normalize the situation in the region.
"We dearly hope that in the course of our cooperation with Russia, which is our strategic partner, we will actively work on the normalization of the situation in the region," Aliyev stated. "We can consider the situation to be already normalized from the stance of the military aspect, but definitely there is still a lot to be done from the stance of political, economic, transport and other aspects of our future cooperation."
"We certainly hope that Russia as our friend, strategic partner, neighbor and the country, which deployed peacekeepers on the territory of Azerbaijan, will continue providing for the ease of tensions," he said.
According to Aliyev, the new situation, which evolved in the South Caucasus, "gives a new shape" to bilateral relations. "We are actively interacting as close neighbors and good friends."
Renewed clashes between Azerbaijan and Armenia erupted on September 27, 2020, with intense battles raging in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. Baku and Yerevan have disputed sovereignty over Nagorno-Karabakh since February 1988, when the region declared its secession from the Azerbaijani Soviet Socialist Republic.
On November 9, 2020, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed a joint statement on a complete ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the document, the Azerbaijani and Armenian sides stopped at the positions that they had maintained, and Russian peacekeepers were deployed along the engagement line in Nagorno-Karabakh and along the Lachin Corridor that connects Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Also, some districts were handed over to Azerbaijan.
The Azerbaijani president also thanked Russia for its prompt decision on the deliveries of anti-COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V to his country, having added that this vaccine "is gaining more and more popularity in the world today."
"The fact that we have now access to it [the vaccine] will definitely help us to cope with this disaster faster," Aliyev said.
On August 11, 2020, Russia became the first worldwide to register a vaccine against the coronavirus dubbed Sputnik V. The inoculation was developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry.