As part of the official visit of Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Alikhan Smailov to Azerbaijan, he had a meeting with President Ilham Aliyev.

The Head of Government conveyed warm words of greetings from the President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and stressed the high importance of the 100th anniversary of the National Leader of the people of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev celebrated this year.

He underlined interaction of the two countries is a bright example of strategic partnership and alliance based on trust and mutual understanding. Azerbaijan is Kazakhstan's most important trade and economic partner in the South Caucasus. Last year, the bilateral trade turnover grew by 40% and exceeded $460 million. According to the results of the first four months of this year, the mutual trade reached $185 million, having also increased by 40%.

"In accordance with the task set before us to bring the turnover up to $1 billion, together with the Government of Azerbaijan we are working to expand trade and economic relations," Alikhan Smailov said.

For his part, Ilham Aliyev expressed confidence that the official visit of Prime Minister of Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan will contribute to further development of friendly relations between the two countries.

"The agenda of our cooperation is quite extensive, expanding from year to year. I am glad that the agreements, which were adopted at the level of the presidents, are being implemented. This shows that the relations between our countries are at a very high level. At the same time, we have a huge potential for their further development. Implementation of the measures we have agreed on will contribute to an increase in trade turnover and create additional opportunities for businesses and for implementation of even more large-scale projects in energy, transport and other industries," Ilham Aliyev said.

#Alikhan Smailov #The Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan #Foreign trips #International Cooperation