Putin holds discussions with Aliyev and highly appreciates the level of relations between Russia and Azerbaijan

Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks in the Kremlin on Monday with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, who is on a working visit to Russia.

At the beginning of the meeting, Putin called for talking about the situation from the point of view of ensuring security in the region.

As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reported earlier today, the two presidents are holding discussions that will continue during a working breakfast, after which, they will meet with veterans of the construction of the Amur-Baikal (BAM) railway line.

After President Putin described the bilateral relations between Russia and Azerbaijan as high-level, he said during the discussions: “Of course, we will talk about bilateral relations, which are at a high level and developing well. The volume of trade exchange between the two countries is growing steadily - it has already reached more than 4 - 6 billion if we talk in dollar terms, and Russian investments are working in the economy of Azerbaijan.”

Putin noted that Russia and Azerbaijan have many interesting areas of cooperation.

President Putin expressed his gratitude for the great contribution made by Heydar Aliyev, the father of the current Azerbaijani president, to the construction process of the BAM railway line, when he was serving as Soviet Prime Minister.

The Russian Head of State noted that BAM was a great and important project for the entire Soviet Union.

"Not only do we know it well, we remember it, and we are very grateful and cherish the memory of this," he said.

President Putin indicated that he and his Azerbaijani counterpart will meet with the old employees of BAM, and added: “There is something we can talk about. We are now, as you probably know about this, developing the eastern region of the country, and this includes developing the Trans-Siberian Railway, and everything related to All of this was important to us, and it remains very important, even today. I am sure that all the efforts and years of work that your father Heydar Aliyev devoted to implementing this huge project still play an important role today, not only for Russia, but for the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations. "Fully independent, taking into account that many of our partners use this transport artery in one way or another."