On July 21, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, had a one-on-one meeting with the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria, Kiril Petkov, the Press Office of the Azerbaijani President reported.

Ilham Aliyev said: “Bulgaria and Azerbaijan are strategic partners. We have signed the relevant Declaration relatively recently. In short, this is a very high level of cooperation. Of course, strategic cooperation covers many areas, including energy security. I am glad that we have established cooperation in the field of energy. There is already a direct line to Bulgaria along the Southern Gas Corridor. This is, of course, long-term cooperation that will have great potential in the future. But not only energy but also other areas such as trade, investments, creation of joint ventures, tourism.”

Kiril Petkov said: “First of all, I would like to thank you for being a true friend during our time of need over the past six months. That is how friendship should be. I also fully understand that the friendship between the two countries has a long history and spans many fields. I learned with great pleasure that we can even discuss other issues not related to the energy field - technologies, information technologies, agriculture, construction.”

“Bulgaria is a member of the European Union. You can count not only bilaterally but also on Bulgaria as a European Union member. We are also a member of the Council of the European Union. So, I think that if we are together, the horizons will look very wide and promising,” he added.

Moreover, on the same day, Aliyev had an expanded meeting with Petkov.

Speaking at the meeting, President Ilham Aliyev said that the countries signed the Declaration on Strategic Partnership several years ago. “I believe the time has come to turn this document into very practical results of our cooperation in economic, industrial development, trade, energy, transportation, tourism, high technologies, and other fields. Of course, we mainly discussed energy security issues and will continue this discussion. However, at the same time, if we take into account the geographical location, the projects we have implemented with our neighbors to connect the railway system of Europe and Azerbaijan, and the increasing volume of cargo passing through Azerbaijan, there is a great potential in the field of transportation. Transit from Azerbaijan has increased by more than 30 percent in five months of this year alone. We believe this is just the beginning because there is potential here," the President added.

Prime Minister of Bulgaria flagged that friends become friends when they solve problems. “Everyone is a friend at the table. But when it comes to solving a problem together, friends should still stand by each other. I want to note that you stood by Bulgaria when the need arose. Bulgaria will be by your side. We discussed many opportunities in the energy sector and beyond,” the prime minister stated.

“I support your approach that we have signed the Strategic Partnership document, held discussions, and now we need to turn them into reality. Our government will probably remain in its current composition for the next few weeks. But there are decisions, and we are sure that the next government will be our government. We concluded that many things could be done in the fields of technology, logistics, export to Europe, distribution of energy carriers,” he added.

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