BAKU, April 5. /TASS/. Frequent meetings and relations of trust with Russian President Vladimir Putin contribute a great deal to the strengthening of inter-state ties between Azerbaijan and Russia, Azerbaijani leader Ilkham Aliyev told ITAR-TASS First Deputy Director-General Mikhail Gusman in an interview.

"Our personal relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin are one of the major factors for successful bilateral relations. Our frequent meetings - both bilateral and multilateral contacts - help foster our bilateral relations and mutual understanding," Aliyev said. "We have a relation of great trust and there are no tabooed themes we cannot discuss. Should there emerge some issues that may require out intervention, we promptly contact each other by telephone or meet personally to iron out all wrinkles some of our subordinates may have let develop," Aliyev said.

This is a major factor in international relations that has played a tangible role in inter-state cooperation and continues doing so.

"I believe that our personal relations of trust and the common understanding of the importance of our countries for each other have enabled us to propel our cooperation to the level of strategic partnership," Aliyev said.

He noted tight interaction between Azerbaijan and Russia on many issues.

"In the economy trade turnover has been growing. We’ve been working on joint projects in transport and energy. Humanitarian cooperation is a fast field for cooperation," Aliyev said.

He recalled that Azerbaijan had more than 300 schools with instruction in the Russian language. All institutions of higher learning have a Russian language department. Also, Russia’s leading universities - the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University run their local branches, "which is another major factor for bilateral humanitarian cooperation," Aliyev said.