Xi, Azerbaijan's Aliyev mark 30 years of ties

BEIJING－President Xi Jinping and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev exchanged congratulatory messages on Saturday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

In his message, Xi pointed out that China and Azerbaijan are partners that have traditional friendly cooperation.

Over the past 30 years, Xi noted, China-Azerbaijan relations have maintained sound and steady momentum on development, political mutual trust has been deepened, cooperation in various fields has moved forward with substantial progress, and collaboration in global and regional affairs has grown increasingly close.

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Xi said, the two nations have stood together and helped each other, a demonstration of their traditional friendship.

Xi stressed that he attaches great importance to the development of China-Azerbaijan relations, saying that he is ready to work with Aliyev to take the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations as an opportunity to push for more accomplishments in bilateral ties and cooperation in various areas for the benefit of both countries and their peoples.

In his message, Aliyev said that Azerbaijan-China relations have continued to develop on the basis of mutual trust. The two sides have carried out high-level mutually beneficial cooperation in politics, the economy and trade and other areas, while multilateral cooperation has achieved fruitful results.

He also said that the Azerbaijani side supports the Belt and Road Initiative, adding he believes that the traditional friendly Azerbaijan-China relations will continue to deepen and benefit the people of both countries.

Xinhua