BAKU – Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on Sunday for a two-day state visit during which he will meet his counterpart Ilham Aliyev.
Russian television broadcast footage of the president’s plane arriving in Baku this evening.
The official Azerbaijani news agency reported that Putin and Aliyev are having dinner at the president’s residence.
The Kremlin announced that President Putin will meet on Monday on the shores of the Caspian Sea with Aliyev to discuss “issues related to the development of strategic partnership relations and alliance between Russia and Azerbaijan, as well as current international and regional issues.”
Putin is scheduled to attend a wreath-laying ceremony tomorrow at the grave of Ilham’s father, Heydar Aliyev, who ruled between 1993 and 2003, according to the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
The program also includes discussions, signing of joint declarations, and statements to the press by Putin and Aliyev, according to the Russian agency.
Putin’s last visit to Azerbaijan was in September 2018.
Azerbaijan, which will host the COP29 climate conference next November, is a major producer of natural gas that the European Union has turned to to compensate for the sharp reduction in Russian supplies since the start of the conflict in Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia is accused of playing an ambiguous role in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region, and the two former Soviet republics have long been within Russia’s sphere of influence.
Armenia accuses Moscow of not providing sufficient support to Azerbaijan, which in September 2023 forcibly regained full control over this mountainous region that had been ruled for three decades by Armenian separatists.
Since the end of the war, Yerevan has sought to strengthen its relations with the West, including the United States, much to the Kremlin’s dismay.
Putin’s visit to Azerbaijan comes as Russia seeks to repel a military attack launched by Ukrainian forces on its territory on August 6.
Putin ordered his army to expel Ukrainian forces, which according to Kiev now control 82 towns and 1,150 square kilometers of Russian territory.
In March 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin for “deporting” Ukrainian children to Russia, making his foreign travel even more complicated. The Kremlin categorically rejects the court’s accusations.
Source: French
#Putin #Azerbaijan #AlMarsad #Libyan #Newspaper
2024-08-19 03:10:53
