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Israeli PM pays visit to Azerbaijan

Xinhua, December 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Azerbaijan and Israel signed four bilateral documents following the one-on-one meeting of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu here on Tuesday, official media reported.

These documents include an agreement on cooperation in standardization, conformity assessment and metrology between the governments of Azerbaijan and Israel, agreement on cooperation in agricultural sphere and convention on the avoidance of double taxation that will apply to taxes on income and prevention of tax evasion.

Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Israel's Environmental Protection Minister Ze'ev Elkin signed a memorandum of understanding on creation of a joint commission between the Government of Azerbaijan and the State of Israel.

Addressing a joint press conference with Israeli PM, President Ilham Aliyev said that documents clearly show that Azerbaijan and Israel have very big potential for cooperation. Aliyev pointed out that creation of a joint economic commission, which is a very efficient mechanism of bilateral cooperation, will help increase trade turnover between the two countries.

Prior to the press conference, Aliyev and Netanyahu discussed a very broad range of issues concerning the two countries' bilateral relations in various areas including defence industry.

"We actively cooperate in the area of defense industry and this cooperation lasts already for many years," Aliyev told a joint press conference.

"So far the contracts between Azerbaijani and Israeli companies with respect to purchasing defense equipment are close to five billion US dollars. The biggest part of these contracts has already been executed and we continue to work on that. We are very satisfied with the level of this cooperation," Aliyev stressed.

Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu left Israel Tuesday morning on a two-day visit to Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Before leaving, Netanyahu told local journalists about the significance of the trip. He said, "These are two large and significant countries in the Islamic world and our goal is to strengthen diplomatic, security and economic relations with them."

Netanyahu last met with Aliyev on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January.

Israeli-Azerbaijani ties have been expanding since the very early 1990s. The strategic relationship included cooperation in trade and security matters. Azerbaijan is home to some 12,000 Mountain Jews, residing primarily in Baku and Quba region. Endit