Azeri foreign minister, US secretary of state discuss Karabakh
Zerkalo, Baku
8 Apr 06
Excerpt from information department report by Azerbaijani newspaper
Zerkalo on 8 April headlined “‘Azerbaijan is a close US partner,’
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during the meeting with Elmar
Mammadyarov”
“We would be very glad to see Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in
Washington. The expanding of cooperation between the USA and
Azerbaijan meet both sides’ interests,” US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice said at the meeting with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister
Elmar Mammadyarov yesterday [7 April in Washington]. During a
three-hour meeting the sides discussed details of President Aliyev’s
forthcoming visit to the USA.
Rice said that Azerbaijan was one of the close US partners in the
South Caucasus. She noted that the USA and Azerbaijan had close
positions and highly assessed Azerbaijan’s steps to fight terrorism.
She also said that the USA wished a speedy and peaceful solution to
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict because such a problem delays the
regional development as a whole. She noted that the year 2006 might be
a decisive year for the conflict’s resolution and that the USA was
ready to provide comprehensive assistance to the sides to tackle the
problem.
Mammadyaraov thanked Rice for a warm reception and told her that the
Azerbaijani authorities had intensified their efforts to resolve the
conflict. He said that Karabakh was an integral part of Azerbaijan and
called on Washington to take a more active part in the resolution of
this regional problem.
The interlocutors also discussed Iran’s nuclear programme. Mammadyarov
said that our country backed the idea of holding talks on the basis of
mutual understanding and offered a mediation role in these talks.
He said that Azerbaijan’s economic development was connected with
security of the country and the region as a whole. With this purpose,
Azerbaijan is ready to continue cooperation with the US
administration.
[Passage omitted: At his meetings with US congressmen, Mammadyarov
discussed regional situation, Caspian energy security, bilateral ties]
As part of the visit, Mammadyarov delivered a speech at the US
Heritage Foundation. He said that although certain forces did not want
speedy resolution of the Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijan still believes
that it is impossible to change existing state borders in the modern
world which does not accept expulsion of people from territories where
they have lived for centuries.
[Passage omitted: Mammadyarov also met OSCE Minsk Group’s US
co-chairman Steven Mann, Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried and Bush national security adviser
Steven Hadley]