Azertag, 25 February 2005

As was earlier informed, on February 24, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev met at the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Italy with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

In honor of the Azerbaijan President a guard of honor was lined up before the building of the Council of Ministers.

Premier of the Council of Ministers of Italy Silvio Berlusconi welcomed President of Azerbaijan.

Then, head of the Azerbaijan State and Premier of Italian Government had a one-on-one meeting. The Italian Premier said that he was well aware of dynamic development of Azerbaijan, which promotes strengthening and expanding of mutually beneficial relations between the two countries.

President Ilham Aliyev thanked for hospitality he and the Azerbaijan delegation was shown in Italy, spoke of the path Azerbaijan has passed in the independence years, the problems the country faced, and the works done for integration to Europe. Noting that the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the major obstacle for regional development, president Ilham Aliyev underlined necessity of making by the European community of more efforts to eliminate this problem.

Expressing his consent with President Aliyev's views, Mr. Berlusconi said Azerbaijan's integration goes head very successfully and Italy would do utmost that the European Union played more active role in settlement of the conflict.

President of Azerbaijan spoke of the negotiation process of settlement of the conflict, the activity of the OSCE Minsk Group in this direction, disclosed the standpoint of Azerbaijan for peace way resolution to the problem.

During the talk, the existent level of bilateral relations were highly assessed, and also was noted increase of commodity turnover in the last three years, and was made accent that this dynamic would further be continued by mutual efforts. The sides also exchanged views related to prospects of economic co-op, participation of the Italian businessmen in development of medium entrepreneurship.

The sides also focused place of Azerbaijan in the current world, its contribution to the safety in region and Europe, economic progress, and a number of regional and global questions of mutual interest.

After the meeting, on behalf of the Italian Prime Minister, an official reception was given in honor of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

• MEETING WITH PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF ITALY MR. CARLO AZEGLIO CIAMPI
• MEETING WITH PRIME MINISTER OF THE REPUBLIC OF ITALY MR. SILVIO BERLUSCONI
• MEETING IN VATICAN
• AZERBAIJAN-ITALY BUSINESS FORUM