The Italian under-secretary for foreign affairs, Benedetto Della Vedova, met the Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan, Khalaf Khalafov, in Baku.

Their friendly discussion focused on developing the strategic partnership opened by Prime Minister Renzi and the Azerbaijani President, Aliyev, in Rome in July 2014. "Building on our very important and well-established relationship in the energy field, we agreed on the need to diversify our existing close economic and commercial relations by extending them to other sectors such as infrastructure and transport. We also agreed on the need to give a further impetus to the consumer goods sectors", observed Under-Secretary Della Vedova.

The two also discussed human rights issues, not least in the framework of Azerbaijan’s current Presidency of the Council of Europe, and the main regional crises, especially with regard to Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Della Vedova also attended the opening of the Baku International Humanitarian Forum, and on October 3 2014 will be taking part in the panel discussion on "Challenges of Globalisation: between tradition and transformation".

Bakudaily.Az