Press release: PM meeting with President Aliyez: 26 April 2018

A Downing Street spokesperson said:

This afternoon the Prime Minister hosted President Aliyev of Azerbaijan in Downing Street for a bilateral meeting. The Prime Minister welcomed President Aliyev and said that she was pleased that he had chosen the visit the UK so soon after his inauguration. The leaders agreed on the importance of the UK-Azerbaijan relationship and of our co-operation on issues of shared interest including regional security and energy. They noted the commercial opportunities presented by our close ties, underlined by the sixth Production Sharing Agreement between BP and SOCAR which they witnessed being signed following the meeting.

They discussed matters of regional and global security and agreed on the need to restore international norms against chemical weapons use. The Prime Minister thanked President Aliyev for Azerbaijan’s continued contributions to regional security including through its support to the NATO mission in Afghanistan. They spoke about the threat to security posed by foreign fighters returning from Syria and Iraq and agreed on the importance of continued close co-operation and information sharing between our security services.

The Prime Minister and President Aliyev discussed democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan. They agreed that the UK and Azerbaijan would continue to work to address concerns both bilaterally and through multilateral organisations in order to support sustainable development and modernisation in Azerbaijan.