Azerbaijan's president begins visit to Serbia to boost economic ties

BELGRADE (Itar-Tass) - Azerbaijan's President Ilkham Aliyev
begins his visit to Serbia on Wednesday to discuss stronger economic ties
and energy cooperation.
Aliyev's visit will begin from one-to-one talks with his Serbian
counterpart Boris Tadic, the Serbian president's press service said. Then
the talks in an expanded format will follow.
It is expected that the two countries' governmental delegations will
discuss a possibility for boosting bilateral trade. The sources in
Belgrade name among priorities bilateral cooperation in energy,
metallurgy, machine-building and pharmaceutics.
A political component of the Serbian-Azerbaijani high-level talks
promises to be rather extensive. The two countries' relations
significantly improved after Azerbaijan refused to recognize Kosovo's
self-proclaimed independence and pulled out its peacekeepers. Belgrade in
turn recognizes Azerbaijan's territorial integrity and supports Baku in
the issue of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement. It is not ruled out
that the two leaders will discuss these issues at the talks as well.
After the talks, Aliyev and Tadic will open Tasmajdan Park in the
centre of Belgrade after reconstruction, where they will plant a tree of
friendship and unveil monuments to Azerbaijan's ex-president Geidar Aliyev
and Serbia's writer Milorad Pavic. The park was reconstructed at the joint
initiative of the Belgrade mayor office and Azerbaijan's government that
granted 2 million euro for the purpose.