Azerbaijan and Russia are opening an international forum on humanitarian cooperation in the Azeri capital, Baku, on Friday.
The two-day forum is expected to attract some 350 participants including the Russian delegation headed by Presidential chief of staff Sergei Naryshkin.
The Azeri presidential staff said that the forum would focus on cooperation between the countries in the spheres of culture, medicine, science, education, sports and energy.
The two ex-Soviet states signed a contract on October 14, 2009 under which the Caucasus nation was to supply 500 million cu m of gas to Russia from January 1, 2010 with the possibility of increasing the import levels.
Azerbaijan holds vast oil and gas reserves in the Caspian Sea, which it exports to neighboring Georgia, Turkey, and Europe through three pipelines - the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan via Georgia to Turkey, Baku-Novorossiisk and the Baku-Supsa to Georgia.
BAKU, January 22 (RIA Novosti)
