Putin to visit Azerbaijan on June 12-13, to attend first European Games opening ceremony - presidential adviser

MOSCOW, June 8 /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on June 12-13 where he will have a number of international meetings, presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Monday. Putin will attend the opening ceremony of the first European Games in Baku. He is also expected to meet IOC President Thomas Bach, Ushakov added. The Russian president will meet his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilkham Aliev the next day on June 13 first in the narrow and later the expanded format. According to Ushakov, the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, will be part of the agenda. During his visit to Baku President Putin is also expected to meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Putin and Erdogan had a telephone conversation on Monday morning to discuss a possibility of meeting each other in Baku. "It was agreed that the sides would start preparing Putin’s possible contact with Erdogan already today as both leaders are planning to attend the opening ceremony of the first European Games in Baku. We are starting working on the agenda for their meeting," the Russian president’s adviser said. The European Games are regional international sport competitions of athletes of the European continent. They will take place once in four years under the supervision of the European Olympic Committee. Baku has the honour to host the first European Games on June 12-28. Russia is sending 360 athletes to the European Games, including seven Olympic champions and 34 world champions, Ushakov said. Speaking about Russian-Azerbaijani relations, Ushakov said they were built on the basis of good-neighboured partnership and had a reciprocal and multi-dimensional nature. The bilateral trade grew by 12% in 2014 to reach $4 billion. The figure stood at $ 707 million in the first quarter of 2015 marking a 5.8% increase since the first quarter of 2014. The construction of a new automobile bridge across the Samur River, which serves as a natural border between Russia and Azerbaijan, will give a new impetus to the expansion of bilateral trade contacts. Read more