ANKARA - State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener said on Saturday that Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev attributed great importance to relations with Turkey and stated that Turkey's relations with friendly country Azerbaijan would further improve.
Sener returned from Azerbaijan to Turkey after he attended oath-taking ceremony of Aliyev and the Ninth Meeting of Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) Foreign Ministers Council.
Replying to questions of A.A correspondent at Ankara's Esenboga Airport, Sener said that Aliyev showed great interest in him and stated that Aliyev underlined the importance of his country's relations with Turkey in his speeches.
Sener said that friendly relations between the two countries improved rapidly and stated that important progresses would be recorded with completion of Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline project in 2005 and natural gas pipeline whose construction would start soon.
Stating that he underlined the importance of BSEC which became an organization producing projects in the meeting, Sener said that he called on countries to contribute to this fund.
State Minister Sener said that the Protocol Concerning the Privileges and Immunities of the Parliamentary Assembly of BSEC (PABSEC) was also signed in the meeting which focused on activities on energy, transportation, tourism, security and economic cooperation.
Sener said that they believed that this protocol would contribute to PABSEC' working more actively and fruitfully.
(EÖ-UK) 01.11.2003