The strong solidarity between Azerbaijan and Türkiye is contributing to the Turkic world, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Thursday.
"The unity, brotherhood and solidarity between Azerbaijan and Türkiye, rooted in our common history and rich national-spiritual values, not only contribute to regional prosperity, peace and security, but also serve as an important factor for the entire Eurasian region," Aliyev said in a message read at the 28th Eurasian Economic Summit in Istanbul by Azerbaijan's Ambassador in Ankara Rashad Mammadov.
He underlined that for centuries, people of various ethnicities and religions have lived in friendship and mutual respect in Azerbaijan, which is located at the crossroads of East and West, North and South.
"Preserving the traditions of multiculturalism, interfaith dialogue and tolerance is both our way of life and one of the priorities of our state policy," he added.
Aliyev also said Azerbaijan supports peaceful relations between cultures on a global scale and actively promotes intercultural dialogue to improve mutual understanding.
The president reaffirmed Azerbaijan's commitment to establishing long-term peace and ensuring socioeconomic welfare in the South Caucasus.
The two countries, which share a border only through Azerbaijan’s autonomous Nakhchivan exclave, have deeper ties than they did 33 years ago.
Azerbaijan and Türkiye bolstered their ties through shared energy and transport projects, such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil line, Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline and Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line.
Ankara and Baku aim to deepen their cooperation by implementing the Zangezur Corridor, connecting the two countries with a highway and railway through Armenia, which borders them both.
In economic cooperation, Azerbaijan made its biggest foreign investments in Türkiye with over $20 billion (TL 772.86 billion), while Türkiye supplied Azerbaijan with over $13 billion in capital.
Türkiye has also assisted its ally in developing and training its military and bolstering its defense industry.
Türkiye also supplied political and spiritual support for Azerbaijan during the Second Karabakh War in 2020 against Armenia.
