The message reads, in part:
“This year your forum, which is dedicated to cooperation in Eurasia, has met for the first time in the ancient and beautiful city of Baku. I am confident that in the capital of Azerbaijan, which stands at the junction of Europe and Asia, you will get a sense of the powerful potential of the nations that live on this continent.
Over its 15-year-long history, the Verona Eurasian Economic Forum has gained prestige as an international venue for serious and substantive discussions on the development of multifaceted cooperation in Greater Eurasia. Your broad-ranging and constructive discussions involve prominent politicians, business leaders, academics, experts, diplomats and journalists from many countries. This open communication is especially important in the current situation when the world has entered an era of revolutionary transformations and the emergence of a multipolar system. Eurasia’s importance has been growing from year to year, new economic growth centres are becoming stronger, and integration groups are evolving and aligning their potentials. Cooperation among the regional countries is based on the principles of sovereignty, equality, mutual trust and respect.
For its part, Russia will continue to take energetic efforts to promote the development of a common continent-wide space of peace, stability and prosperity in Greater Eurasia.
I have no doubt that the forum will be successful this year and that the discussion of the situation unfolding in Eurasia and the world in the Verona format will help us to take a comprehensive look at modern reality and also to peer into the future and define the goals and development prospects of a new model of balanced and equal relations among states and various integration associations in Greater Eurasia.”