President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with French newspaper le Figaro on October 23 that “with Georgia our relations are excellent.”
“We call each other strategic partners. Azerbaijan is the first or second-largest investor in Georgia, and the first or second-largest taxpayer” noted President Ilham Aliyev.
According to him, the fact that “Georgia is Christian and Azerbaijan is Muslim [nation] does not make any difference. We do not look at this from this point of view.”
“And have a trilateral format of cooperation between Turkey, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. We have presidential summits, ministerial meetings, including defense, foreign, economy ministers,” Azerbaijani President went on, adding that “we have all our major transportation and energy communication going through Georgia.” “We have a big Azerbaijani community in Georgia, close to 300,000 people,” President Aliyev also underscored.
Therefore, the Azerbaijani President concluded, “like our relations with Turkey, our relations with Georgia are good examples of a good neighborhood.”
Making the case for Azerbaijani-Armenian coexistence in Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijani President also said: “Look how they [Armenians and Azerbaijanis] live together, for instance, in Georgia. In some Georgian villages, Azerbaijanis and Armenians live side by side.” “Why it is not possible in Nagorno-Karabakh?,” President Aliyev wondered.
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