In his words, 116 Russian corporate offices now work in Azerbaijan; add to this 151 Azeri-Russian joint ventures and 83 enterprises with 100-percent Russian capital. Russia and Azerbaijan have also signed more than 100 treaties and agreements, including 70 inter-state and inter-governmental documents, Ragimzade noted. Azerbaijan cooperates with 68 Russian territories, Ragimzade went on to say.
The Azeri-Russian inter-parliamentary commission is to examine six issues, including the implementation of specific resolutions of the commission's third session, i.e. the participation of national parliaments in implementing various accords that were reached during the Azeri President's February 2004 Moscow visit, their interaction in this sphere, measures to provide legislative support for that expanded Russian-Azeri inter-regional and trans-border cooperation, as well as the involvement of national parliaments in the tourist industry's development.
The commission's Russian co-chairman Konstantin Margelov, who heads the Federation Council's CIS-affairs committee, noted during the session that cooperation within the framework of the bilateral economic-cooperation program until the year 2010 had expanded rather successfully since the commission's previous session. Moreover, the first Russian-Azeri economic forum's decision on restructuring the bilateral trade turnover is now being implemented, Margelov added.
Agreements between Azerbaijan and Russia's Leningrad, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Kemerovo and Voronezh regions are currently being drafted; these documents will be signed later on, he said.
The session also discussed Moscow's decision to introduce tougher exit-entry regulations along the Russian-Azeri border. We could have settled this issue in a more civilized manner, Ragimzade told those present. For his own part, Margelov said that such regulations were something temporary.
We now maintain good contacts in the field of anti-terrorist operations; I hope that we'll manage to okay a number of measures making it possible to open up state borders and to ensure Russia's security all the same, he noted in conclusion.
