President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is very satisfied with the outcomes of his visit to China, describing the trip as very encouraging.
Aliyev arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for a three-day state visit to China. On Wednesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Aliyev held talks and signed a joint statement on establishing the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.
They also witnessed the signing of 20 cooperation agreements between the two countries in various sectors, including justice, Belt and Road cooperation, green development, digital economy, intellectual property rights, and space cooperation.
The visit marks the first time in six years since Aliyev visited China in April 2019. In July last year, the two leaders met in the Kazakh capital Astana ahead of the 24th Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and elevated the bilateral relations to the strategic partnership.
In an interview with the China Media Group (CMG) on Wednesday, Aliyev said that the last meeting represents a very important milestone in bilateral cooperation and this visit elevated the bilateral relations to a higher level.
"Despite the fact that less than one year have passed since our last meeting, we signed with President Xi Jinping Declaration on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. So we elevated our relationship even higher. Along with that, 20 more documents have been signed which cover broad range of areas. So I would say that the relations are excellent as well as the visit. I'm very satisfied with results. First, I'm very honored that President Xi Jinping invited (me) to pay a state visit to China. And the atmosphere, hospitality, friendship and also substance of our discussions was really very encouraging. We elevated our relations on a higher level," he said.
Having witnessed China's transformation since his first visit to China in 2005, Aliyev expressed admiration for China's rapid development and economic success, and congratulated the Chinese leadership on the accomplishments.
"During my meetings with Chinese leadership, I underlined that every time I come to China I see development, I see a lot of new infrastructure projects, new buildings, beautiful city. And I congratulated my friends with extraordinary achievement and social and economic development, as well as in activity of China on international arena. And always coming here is a great pleasure. I've been many times. My first visit to China was in 2005. So I witnessed throughout the 20 years the rapid development and extraordinary transformation of the country. What can be seen and also what I read about the economic performance and what I get as information really demonstrate that your country is on the right track and congratulations with that," he said.
Azerbaijani president describes his China visit as very encouraging
