President of Azerbaijan making two-day official visit to Ukraine

At the invitation of President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovich on October 27-28 President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is making an official visit to Ukraine, said Deputy Chief of Staff at the Presidential Administration of Ukraine Andrii Goncharuk, presidential press office reported.

During their meeting, Viktor Yanukovych and Ilham Aliyev will discuss further invigoration of the Ukrainian-Azerbaijani dialogue at the highest level, deepening bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest and achieving concrete agreements on further development of cooperation, especially in the trade-economic area.

From January to August this year, the turnover totaled $1.04 billion which is $677 million dollars (2,9 times) more than in the same period of 2009.

Herewith:

- Exports amounted to $400.3 million (13,4% growth);

- Imports amounted to $636.2 million (64.9 times increase);

- Ukraine's negative balance amounted to $235.9 million.

As of July 1, 2010, the Republic of Azerbaijan has invested $22.0 million in Ukraine.

Andrii Goncharuk also said it is expected that a broad range of issues of bilateral cooperation in priority areas will be discussed, including joint projects in energy, peaceful space exploration, engineering, military cooperation and so on.

An important element of the visit will be the second meeting of the Council of Presidents of Ukraine and Azerbaijan. The event will promote further development of political dialogue at the highest level, filling the strategic Ukrainian-Azerbaijani relations with pragmatic meaning in line with the course on economization of foreign policy of Ukraine.

Also, during his visit to Ukraine, the President of Azerbaijan will meet Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov and Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn.

Andrii Goncharuk also informed that in the framework of the visit sides are scheduled to sign a number of bilateral documents aimed at development of Ukrainian-Azerbaijani cooperation, such as the Joint Declaration of the Presidents of Ukraine and Azerbaijan and the Agreement between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan on cooperation between archival institutions.