Following the official welcome ceremony, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev have held a meeting in a limited format.

Greeting his Kazakh counterpart, President Ilham Aliyev said:

-Welcome to Azerbaijan, Nursultan Abishevich. I am very glad to see you in Azerbaijan. We attach great importance to your visit to our country. I am sure that this trip will contribute to the strengthening of brotherly relations between our two countries and nations. Our bilateral relations are developing very successfully.

We are cooperating in a number of areas, always supporting each other on the international arena, and are jointly implementing numerous important events and initiatives in the region. The agenda of today's visit is quite broad. We have a great number of issues to be discussed. I am confident that the decisions to be made, the documents to be signed will contribute to active development of ties between our countries. We attach great importance to this. Kazakhstan is a friendly and brotherly country to us. It has great potential and as your friend we are happy for Kazakhstan's achievements under your leadership. Therefore, I am sure that your visit will be very fruitful and efficient, and yield good results. This will bring the two countries closer to each other and create more favorable conditions in the region. Once again, you are welcome to Azerbaijan.

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President Nursultan Nazarbayev said:

- First, thank you very much Ilham Heydarovich for the invitation to pay an official visit to your country. I am very pleased with this visit because I feel at home here. Relations between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have never been harmed under any circumstances. On the contrary, we have enjoyed the closeness of our history, culture and religion and built our relationship on the basis of this confidence.

We laid the foundation of this together with Heydar Aliyev after the restoration of independence of our countries. And we are continuing this work now.

Our delegation has come here with a sincere confidence that this visit and talks will lay a new foundation for strengthening the trade, economic and political relations and for bringing our countries and peoples closer to each other. We already started the initial talks with you yesterday and we see what opportunities and prospects we have under these new circumstances. So now at a time when the world is facing great changes and economic and political crisis our export and exchange products have collapsed. On the one hand, this is bad, but on the other hand, as is known we have to see the opportunities within the problems. And we see these opportunities in diversifying the economy, creating new production areas, doing new things and involving science and innovations in this. These works are being carried out both in Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and we can significantly improve the economic relations between our countries on a new basis. In order to continue our work, we have to specify the time once again.

I would like to congratulate you on the occasion of the referendum. I am sure that the referendum will serve the welfare of the people of Azerbaijan. This referendum has once again demonstrated the Azerbaijani people's confidence in you personally to. This is a very important point at such a challenging period. We sincerely congratulate you.

I have eye witnessed how Baku developed and became more beautiful. As a man who built a new capital, it is clear to me, and I know how all this developed. The city is becoming more beautiful because it is the image of the country. Each visitor sees the capital city, the country. Azerbaijan is also developing. I would like to reiterate that we are close neighbors and friends who rely on each other.

Thank you for the warm reception given to our delegation. The talks we will hold and the declaration we will sign are indicative of great works we plan to do for our countries and peoples.

Thank you.

President Ilham Aliyev: Thank you.