Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with Raphaël Comte, Chairman of the Council of States of the Swiss Federal Assembly
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov within his official visit in the Swiss Confederation met with Raphaël Comte, Chairman of the Council of States of the Swiss Federal Assembly.
Minister Elmar Mammadyarov expressed his satisfaction with the current status of Azerbaijan-Swiss bilateral relations and highly appreciated the level of cooperation existing between the Parliaments of the two countries. Stressing the activities of the friendship groups in the Parliaments of both countries, Minister added that the inter-parliamentary relations contribute to the deepening of our bilateral relations.
Touching upon the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov informed his interlocutor about the current status on the settlement of the conflict. He reiterated Azerbaijan’s position and noted that the conflict must be settled on the basis of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan in compliance with the norms and principles of international law and the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council.
Emphasizing the relations in the economic field, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov noted with satisfaction that more that 70 Swiss companies are successfully operating in Azerbaijan and in this regard, underlined the existence of wide potential for the further expansion of mutually beneficial economic cooperation. Pointing out ongoing radical economic reforms and attractive conditions for foreign investment in Azerbaijan, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov invited the Swiss companies to invest more actively in the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan. Referring to the important transport infrastructure projects Minister expressed his conviction that the Swiss companies will potentially find these projects interesting. In this regard, they also had an exchange of views on the expansion of cooperation between “the Stadler Rail” company and the Azerbaijan Railways.
Noting that he signed “the Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Federal Council of Switzerland on the facilitation of the issuance of visas” with Federal Councilor Didier Burkhalter, Minister Elmar Mammadyarov expressed his confidence that this would give impetus to increase of people-to-people contacts between our countries.
During the meeting the cooperation on parliamentary dimensions of international organizations and other regional issues of mutual concern were also discussed.
