Azerbaijan is a strategic partner of the North Caucasus.
The statement came from Sergey Subbotin, Deputy Plenipotentiary Representative of Russian President in the North Caucasus Federal District, who was speaking Thursday at the Third Russian-Azerbaijani Inter-Regional Forum "Russian-Azerbaijani dialogue 2012" in Baku.
Subbotin emphasized that last year saw record rate of trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia. The Russian official expressed Russia's interest in promoting Azeri investments in the development of tourism sector in the North Caucasus. "This is a very large area, but, unfortunately, Azerbaijan is not strongly involved in it," he said.
In addition, Subbotin said there is a high mutual interest in developing cooperation in the North Caucasus.
Stressing that the implementation of joint economic projects will create a corridor from the South Caucasus to Russia, Subbotin said, "We are planning to create a unified representation of the North Caucasus region in Azerbaijan to enhance cooperation."

AzerTAc