French President Sarkozy to visit Azerbaijan, Georgia

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will pay on Friday official visits to Azerbaijan and Georgia as part of his Caucasus tour. The French president will arrive in Baku from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, where he was on his official visit on Thursday. In Azerbaijan Sarkozy will hold a bilateral meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and afterwards they will both take part in the solemn ceremony of lying a foundation for the first French college in the Central Asian state. Later in the day Sarkozy will travel to Georgia, where he will hold talks with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili. The leaders are expected to discuss bilateral cooperation as well as the issue of Georgia’s strained relations with Russia. During the tour, Sarkozy is escorted by a number of high-ranking French officials, including Minister of Industry, Energy and the Digital Economy Eric Besson, Minister of Cooperation Henri de Raincourt and Foreign Trade Minister Pierre Lellouche.