Deputy FM: Russia-Azerbaijan co-op develops consistently even amid pandemic

Russia and Azerbaijan continue their relations consistently even amid pandemic, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko told the Moskva-Baku portal, Report informs.

"The leaders of our countries maintained an intensive dialogue," the deputy Foreign Minister said.

Despite the coronavirus-related restrictions, the two governments held active work on the level of parliaments, profile ministries, and departments. Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Jeyhun Bayramov and Chairperson of Azerbaijan's Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova paid official visits to Moscow in 2020. Russian governmental delegations repeatedly visited Baku.

"The trade between the countries went down slightly in 2020 - by 10% compared to the previous year, to $2.9 billion. The Action Plan for the period until 2024 is underway to bring the Russian-Azerbaijani strategic partnership to a brand new level. The new sixth 'roadmap' of cooperation in innovational development and digital economy was signed in November 2020.

"The pandemic has brought correctives to the conduction of twopartite events scheduled for 2020. The session of the Intergovernmental commission on economic cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan, interregional and youth forums and Days of Azerbaijani Culture in Russia were postponed. We expect the session of the Intergovernmental Commission to take place in Moscow soon and intend to organize all key events planned for 2021," Rudenko said.