On March 18, Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council met with President Heydar Aliyev of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Chief of the General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces Yuri Baluyevsky separately in Ziguangge, Zhongnanhai.

During meeting with Aliyev, Wen said that the China-Azerbaijan friendship enjoys a long history. Since the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries the bilateral relations have achieved new headways. The Chinese government values the relationship with Azerbaijan very much, takes Azerbaijan as a major partner in the Caucasus region and stands ready to work with Azerbaijan to continue furthering the friendly cooperative relations between the two countries.

Talking about the bilateral economic and trade relations, Wen noted that the relations between the two countries in recent years have scored great achievements, but the potential is yet to be fully tapped. China and Azerbaijan complement each other economically and are well in the position to make use of their unique advantages to enhance bilateral economic and trade cooperation. China is ready to seek active cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of energy resources on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit. Meanwhile China supports and encourages domestic businesses to expand investment in Azerbaijan and participate in the development and construction of Azerbaijan's agriculture, information, transportation and infrastructures.

Glad to see the constant development of the friendly relations between Azerbaijan and China, Aliyev indicated that the Azerbaijan government attaches great importance to expanding exchanges and cooperation with China. The bilateral cooperation in such fields as economy and trade, agriculture, energy resources and tourism shows promising prospects. Chinese businesses have achieved fairly sound performance in Azerbaijan and the agricultural machinery made in China enjoys great market potential there. Azerbaijan will take active measures to welcome an increasing number of Chinese businesses to participate in its economic construction so as to raise bilateral friendly cooperation to new levels.

Both sides also exchanged opinions on the issues of anti-terrorism and regional security.

Wen Jiabao exchanged views with General Staff of Russia's Armed Forces Baluyevsky on China-Russia relations and the cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries. Chief of General Staff of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) Liang Guanglie, Deputy Chief of General Staff of the PLA Xiong Guangkai and Russian Ambassador to China Rogachev were present at the meeting.