On 17 December the Rais of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov had a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev who received him in his residence.

Speaking at the meeting, Rustam Minnikhanov thanked for an invitation to visit Azerbaijan as it was agreed during the visit of Ilham Aliev to Kazan when he took part in the events of the BRICS summit and emphasized: “We highly appreciate an opportunity to expand cooperation with your country within the frame work of friendly Russia-Azerbaijan relations.”

He reminded that recently the relations have become substantially more active and informed that according to the results of the last year Tatarstan-Azerbaijan trade turnover  made 102m dollars US and during nine months of the current year it has already exceeded 80.8m dollars.

“We have a great potential for expanding trade, economic and investments interaction. A number of Tatarstan enterprises have been working in Azerbaijan for long time and they are ready to expand their presence,” Rustam Minnikhanov said and specially emphasized the importance of ramping up trade by river and sea ways as this method is practically not used currently.

During the conversation, the Rais of Tatarstan also shared his impressions of the Free Economic Zone and added that the republic could supply agricultural machinery, petrochemical products, oil and gas, compressor and refrigerator equipment and car tyres to Azerbaijan.

In his turn, welcoming Rustam Minnikhamov, Ilham Aliyev said that he was happy to meet him. “As we have agreed in Kazan we are closing the year with our meeting in Baku”, he emphasized.

Rustam Minnikhanov also thanked Ilham Aliyev for the support given to the Tatar community which has about 18 thousand people currently living in Azerbaijan and mentioned active participation of representatives of the national and cultural autonomy of Azeri in life of Tatarstan.