MOSCOW, March 27 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin has invited the Azerbaijani president to St. Petersburg's 11th International Economic Forum and an informal CIS summit in June 2007 during a Kremlin meeting Tuesday.
Before the meeting, Putin praised President Ilkham Aliyev for "embracing every opportunity to meet and talk," and called his Azerbaijani counterpart "a welcome guest."
In turn, Aliyev said he was ready to discuss bilateral issues and the situation in the region, which "relied on close ties between Russia and Azerbaijan."
Azerbaijan's president said that the two countries enjoyed "stable, friendly and cooperative relations," and said he would gladly attend the events in St. Petersburg.
