Viktor Yushchenko expressed gratitude to Ilham Aliyev

Former President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko expressed gratitude to Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev and our people for their support of Ukraine, humanitarian aid, rehabilitation programs for Ukrainian children, and respect for the country's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Yushchenko wrote about this in a post dedicated to his recent visit to Baku on his page on the social network.

"President Ilham Aliyev and I are united by more than 20 years of personal friendship and joint work to strengthen relations between Ukraine and Azerbaijan... I cherish our friendship and am convinced that the strategic partnership, mutual trust, and respect between Ukraine and Azerbaijan will continue to be embodied in important joint endeavors," he emphasized.

The former president noted that the era of his friendship with the Azerbaijani people began with his acquaintance and the establishment of friendly relations with national leader Heydar Aliyev in 1989 in Nakhchivan.

Yushchenko added that an important result of this work was the official consolidation of the strategic partnership between the two countries. He recalled that on May 22, 2008, during Ilham Aliyev's official visit to Kyiv, the Declaration on Friendship and Strategic Partnership between Baku and Kyiv was signed.

"This document defined the strategic nature of our bilateral relations and laid a solid foundation for their further development. <...> During the current meeting, we spoke about the present and future of our countries, the development of bilateral cooperation, and specific projects on the preparation of which our teams will continue to work," Yushchenko concluded.