President Ilham Aliyev has thanked US President Barack Obama for inviting him to the Nuclear Security Summit. After the meeting with the US Secretary of State John Kerry on March 30, 2016 Ilham Aliyev said that Azerbaijan and US established relationships 25 years ago and they are of strategic importance.
“We have met with the US Secretary of State John Kerry several times. But first time it happened here in Washington. Our countries have close economic cooperation, which keeps on developing. The US companies have invested over $10 billion into the Azerbaijani economy,” said Ilham Aliyev.
Azerbaijani President also spoke about construction of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC).
“US Secretary of State John Kerry emphasized importance of this project from the viewpoint of energy safety and diversification of the energy resources transportation. All partners of SGC will benefit from the project, from the manufacturers and transit countries to the consumers. I would like to thank the US government for the support to the project implementation. Without this support we would have been forced to spend more time and efforts for the project implementation. We continue our work and after 2-3 years SGC will be put into operation,” Aliyev said.
Yesterday Azerbaijan President also discussed expansion of ties between Baku and the US Ex-Im Bank. The possibilities of cooperation with the US Ex-Im Bank to implement several projects in Azerbaijan, including electric energy, gas, cotton growing and other fields, have been discussed at the meeting.