United States State Department
Special Briefing
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
July 9, 2007
On-The-Record Briefing on the 10th Annual U.S.-Azerbaijan Security Dialogue
Special Briefing by Acting Assistant Secretary for Political-Military
Affairs Stephen D. Mull and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of
European and Eurasian Affairs Matthew J. Bryza and Azerbaijani Deputy
Foreign Minister Araz Azimov
MR. CASEY: Okay. Well, good afternoon, everybody, pleasure to have you all
here with us today. We wanted to take this opportunity to have these three
distinguished officials speak with you this afternoon. In order of
appearance, as you’ll see them here, we have Acting Assistant Secretary for
Political and Military Affairs Steve Mull, the Deputy Foreign Minister of
Azerbaijan Mr. Azimov, and of course, Mr. Lambros’ favorite State Department
official, the ever popular Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs Matt Bryza.
He’s not here today, Matt, but I know he’s here with you in spirit.
MR. BRYZA: (Inaudible.)
MR. CASEY: Yeah. Anyway, I want to give them an opportunity to talk with you
all about the U.S.-Azerbaijan security dialogue that took place today, also
answer any other questions you might have about our relationship. With that,
let me turn it over to our first briefer, Steve Mull.
AMBASSADOR MULL: Thanks very much, Tom. We were very pleased to welcome
Deputy Minister Azimov today and a very high-ranking delegation from the
Government of Azerbaijan for the 10th annual security discussions, security
dialogue that we’ve been having with the Government of Azerbaijan. I think
it’s fair to say that the dialogue this year really took our security
relationship to a quantitatively different level. Minister Azimov brought
with him a very high-ranking delegation from a widespread of all of the
security ministries back in Azerbaijan, including officials from the defense
ministry, the border police, the ministry for emergencies, the state
protection service, the ministry for national security, and the customs
service.
And they’re here for two days. We kicked off the discussions first thing
this morning. We’ll continue on into tomorrow. During the course of today,
we discussed in great detail the — Azerbaijan’s plans for further
integration with NATO and how we, through our security assistance program,
can help support that in their efforts. We agreed to be — to continue to be
very supportive of their efforts to develop a more robust relationship with
NATO.
We received a very thorough briefing on the military of Azerbaijan’s plans
to modernize itself, to make itself more of a contributor to global security
concerns. And in that regard, we were very glad to have the opportunity to
thank the Government of Azerbaijan for its very strong and steadfast
participation in military enterprises around the world, especially and
including Afghanistan and in Iraq.
We discussed this afternoon, at some length, the whole issue of missile
defense, which, of course, has been very much in the news lately with the
recent offer from the Russians to use the Azerbaijani-owned Gabala radar
facility as part of discussions with where we’re going to be going on
missile defense. And we also will have the opportunity tomorrow to talk a
little bit more about how we can cooperate together in countering terrorism
in the region, how we can cooperate in promoting energy security, and how we
can work together in addressing the many strategic challenges that both of
our countries face in that particular region of the world.
It was a wonderful day. I think tomorrow, we’ll have an equally robust and
rewarding day and it’s been a real pleasure to host our Azerbaijani friends.
Mr. Minister.
DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER AZIMOV: Well, thank you. Thank you all. I think that
my colleague, Ambassador Mull, has been precise enough in drawing the
picture of our agenda and our discussions these days. I must tell that we
are pleased enough to be here once more. We lead the security dialogue with
the U.S. for last ten years and this year is 10th anniversary.
So besides the — simply being an event in our bilateral relations, this
meeting means a lot. It means a success of our cooperation in the security
field. It means the strength of our partnership links. It gives certain
opportunities and it gives us a chance to expand along the agenda of our
bilateral relations. It gives a chance to Azerbaijani and the United States
to consider, in depth, the security risks and threats coming across the
region where Azerbaijan is located. You all know about volatility in that
region, about turbulences and about difficulties which we encounter there.
Partnership of Azerbaijan and U.S. is very profound and we are happy and
pleased to notice further growth of this partnership. Bilateral relations
are viewed through not only bilateral programs of cooperation; we also
address (inaudible) threats at the international and regional level and we
also consider our bilateral partnership within wider frameworks of
Euro-Atlantic institutions.
Regional cooperation with the United States also is aimed at creating much
better involvement for further development of processes of trans-regional
cooperation. You know that there have been many positive results of
partnership between U.S. and Azerbaijan and some of those are well-known.
Those are related to development of oil and gas resources in the Caspian
sector of Azerbaijani — national sector of Azerbaijan. And further
development of these progressively successful achievements, I think, depends
and demands increased partnership in security-related areas. That’s why we
have — we are here, that’s why we continue our talks, and let me say that I
am looking forward to increased partnership with the U.S., whose commitment
to Azerbaijan’s independent, sovereign and — sovereignty and to our total
integrity remains unswerving. Thank you.
MR. BRYZA: It’s a great pleasure and honor to be here today with three of my
friends, with Ambassador Mull and Deputy Minister Azimov and Tom Casey, who
I went to grad school with and consider — I know, don’t hold that against
me — or us.
As Ambassador — or as Deputy Minister Azimov just said, the United States
does have a deep commitment to Azerbaijan’s sovereignty, its independence,
and its territorial integrity. I spend a lot of my own time working on the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and we proceed from a desire to negotiate a
compromise between two fundamental principles which are the principles of a
state’s right to its territorial integrity and the people’s right to
self-determination. So while diplomats have to find some way to negotiate a
compromise through those treacherous waters that is mutually acceptable and
there’s no universal formula, there’s no worldwide accepted way to do that.
Ambassador Mull talked about the security aspect, obviously, of our
cooperation, which is why we’re here today. But the only other thing I’d
like to say is we think that we have three sets of vital strategic interests
with Azerbaijan, beginning with all the security interests that Ambassador
Mull described. We also have, as the Deputy Minister just mentioned, deep
shared interests in energy security.
Energy security means providing options, providing multiple transit routes
and sources of energy supplies, especially natural gas. And Azerbaijan is
now emerging as one of the great producers of natural gas anywhere and
certainly, one of the most readily available supplies of natural gas to help
Europe diversify and therefore, develop genuinely reliable sources of this
most vital commodity. So we have shared security interests, we have shared
energy interests, and finally, we have a shared interest in reform, reform
that aims to expand political and economic freedom through democratic and
market economic reform and also military reform.
And in fact, military reform and democratic reform are inextricably linked
when it comes to a country’s aspirations to deepen its ties to the
Euro-Atlantic community. So we’ve talked about a full range of issues today
and we believe that ultimately, to have a real partnership with Azerbaijan,
one that will be stable for the long term and deeper for the long term, we
need to make progress in all three of those sets of strategic interests at
the same time.
Thank you.
MR. CASEY: Okay, guys. Why don’t you — why don’t you go ahead and start.
And please, if you’ve got a specific person you want to address the question
to, go right ahead.
QUESTION: Two questions, the first one for Ambassador Mull. You said that
you had talked about the issue of missile defense. Can you put a little more
flesh on the bone, give us some sense of what you actually discussed in that
context? Did, you know, it seek to get more information about the
installation in Azerbaijan? What in particular came up in the context of
President Putin’s offer? And I know this is something that the United States
has been thinking about since well before President Putin made the offer. I
think General Obering himself has aired the possibility of publicly, someday
making use of this installation. So I know that you’ve been thinking about
it. What exactly did you talk about?
And then the other question is for Mr. Bryza, was whether the United States’
longstanding concerns about human rights in Azerbaijan, the importance of
free and fair elections, freedom of the press, et cetera, was actually
raised in these discussions, even though they are focused on security
matters.
AMBASSADOR MULL: Thank you. We spent today — we have not, up until now, had
a very extended discussion with our Azerbaijani partners on the rationale
and the strategic objectives of the United States missile defense system. So
we took a great bit of time to explain the strategic history of this concept
of missile defense, how we’ve expanded it from missile defense of the
territory of the United States to encompass, really, a global missile
defense system to prevent attacks from rogue states and others who might
wish to harm us through missiles.
We did note that when President Putin was in Kennebunkport earlier this
month that there was a commitment by the Russian side to work with us
through expert-level consultations to develop their proposal (inaudible)
more — much more detail about their proposal to use the Gabala site. We, of
course — Azerbaijan, of course, has an important interest in that since
they are the owners of the Gabala site, leasing it to the Russians, and
we’ve committed to consult with our Azerbaijani friends as news on that
issue emerges.
You’re right; there had been much speculation in the press before about
possible alternate sites to those that the United States is currently
pursuing in Poland and the Czech Republic; however, we had not received this
as a formal proposal until very recently. Now that we have, we’ll, of
course, look forward to getting more details and having a productive and
constructive dialogue on it.
QUESTION: Do you see this as happening mostly between yourselves and the
Russians and merely consulting the Azerbaijan Government, or do you actually
feel like you need to talk to them directly about what this might be?
AMBASSADOR MULL: Well, at this stage, it is a Russian proposal. We need to
hear more details about what they are proposing, and we’ll take it from
there as we get them. But obviously, the Government of Azerbaijan and the
people of Azerbaijan have a direct interest on any defense activity that
takes place on their territory.
MR. BRYZA: Yes, we did discuss democratic reform in Azerbaijan. I should
note that under the leadership of Ambassador Derse, who has joined us today,
and Assistant Secretary Lowenkron, we have launched a bilateral dialogue on
democracy and human rights that — in fact, with whom the interlocutors are
President Aliyev and Foreign Minister Mammadyarov to show the level of
seriousness of that discussion.
The focus, of course, of today’s discussions and tomorrow’s is security, but
nonetheless, we did talk about the importance of sustaining reforms across a
broad front, not just military reform. And we talked about the strategic
importance of Azerbaijan emerging as an increasingly democratic state with a
Muslim majority population of all sorts of confessions, all sorts of
religious confessions. I mean, many different interpretations of Islam are
worshipped in Azerbaijan, but not only; there are Orthodox Christians and
Catholics and a wide variety of religions that are practiced in Azerbaijan.
So the overall emergence of Azerbaijan, again, as a secular democracy with a
Muslim majority population, but with a population of many religious
varieties is a significant strategic development and we need to do
everything we can together to make sure that’s exactly the type of
Azerbaijan that emerges.
QUESTION: I have a question for the Foreign Minister and Mr. Bryza,
Secretary Bryza. It’s a matter of the security. I’m wondering if you can
discuss the TGI pipeline. And for the Foreign Minister specifically, if the
Azerbaijan Government is ready to – (inaudible) some of the concerns that
the Greek Government have regarding the supply of natural gas for this
pipeline in the future.
DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER AZIMOV: Well, the energy security, of course, is one
of issues on the agenda, but there are many aspects of energy security. You
deal with a political environment or you deal with economic aspects or you
deal with security of infrastructure, and we have discussed and we continue
tomorrow consultation of the issues linked to energy infrastructure security
and its protection. And that, of course, is related to a bulk of issues; on
the other hand, linked with maritime security and counterterrorism
activities and increased operational capacities and so on.
Regarding the question which you gave on the project, on the specific
project of TGI, let me say, first of all, that Azerbaijan always is pursuing
the policy of diversification — diversified supplies, diversified routes
for transit and diversified markets. And we always apply all those projects
and suggestions on the basis of commercial viability.
Therefore, I can tell you at this point that TGI is one of those projects on
the agenda. Those are being considered. There are several options for future
transit of Azerbaijani gas to Europe. Azerbaijan is based on the approach of
commercial viability. At the same time, Azerbaijan will be pleased to
contribute to European energy security and Azerbaijan will be pleased,
maximum possible, to extend partnerships with many countries in European
Union.
We also think that the monopolization efforts will not bring benefit to
anyone, so diversification is one of basic principles in this issue.
Let me also relate to the issue of reforms in Azerbaijan. You know, reforms
are interrelated, and once we start talking on security sector front, that,
of course, will, on the other hand, cover the issue of institutions and its
development and human rights and other related issues. So of course, we
discuss. Of course, we cooperate. And I think within our partnership with
the U.S., we have many positive achievements, so that record, in terms of
human rights and development of democracy of Azerbaijan, will be further
improved.
Thank you.
MR. BRYZA: Just to add briefly to Mr. (inaudible), I do feel personally that
there is some building momentum in favor of the Turkey-Greece-Italy
pipeline, both in terms of the commitments Azerbaijan has made publicly over
the last few months to expanding its gas production and providing large
volumes for export to Europe via Georgia and Turkey and into Greece and
Italy. Things are moving forward.
This isn’t the forum in which we normally have those discussions. As the
Deputy Minister just described, when it comes to energy security for this
forum, we’re focused more on the infrastructure security. But we have
constant, ongoing, and very serious discussions with others — well, Deputy
Minister Azimov and others in the government, and I feel quite good about
the alignment of our vision.
And part of what we’re talking about here today is trans-Caspian security in
a broad sense, and we have a challenge to make sure that market principles
decide where the other great quantity of gas around the Caspian, which is in
Turkmenistan, where that gas or how that gas makes it to market. There is a
large — a huge supply of natural gas in the far western reaches of
Turkmenistan, which, if the market decides, will make its way to Europe via
Azerbaijan. But this is a topic not so much for us today, but it’s something
we’re constantly working on with the Government of Azerbaijan. And I’ll
leave for Turkmenistan tomorrow to see if we can help Azerbaijan and
Turkmenistan build on the momentum they’ve already created in their
relations.
MR. CASEY: Yeah, go ahead.
QUESTION: On the issue of Karabakh, obviously, we had recently a delegation
from Azerbaijan in Nagorno-Karabakh. It was the first-ever thing as far as I
can tell, the first in, what, 18 years. Is there an effort to build on that,
to continue a sort of process? Have you discussed it?
And have you also discussed the issue of Eynulla Fatullayev, who has been
put in prison for writing an article on his visit to Karabakh? Has that come
up or is there, in any way, a change of policy on writing articles about
visits to Karabakh? For Mr. Bryza. If Mr. Bryza wants to comment, that’s
okay.
MR. BRYZA: Well, I certainly defer to Deputy Minister Azimov about your last
question in terms of change of Azerbaijani policy. But in terms of this
visit, this dual visit to Armenia and Azerbaijan, yeah, it’s a significant
development. It’s not a breakthrough, but it is a major, serious,
confidence-building measure. And sometimes people don’t pay much attention
to confidence-building measures and dismiss them as sort of running through
the motions.
This is not running through the motions. Where these people visited is of
great emotional seriousness, as you well understand. And the fact that the
two governments were able to facilitate such a visit with the help of the
Minsk Group and the chairman-in-office’s personal representative, Ambassador
Andrzej Kasprzyk, provides reason for hope.
That said, we’re at a point in the negotiations onNagorno-Karabakh where the
presidents need to make some serious decisions, some tough decisions. They
have shown political will. Their deputy ministers have shown political will.
Their ministers have shown political will and have taken the negotiations
about as far as they can now go without presidents making the tough calls.
QUESTION: If you could comment if the issue of Eynulla Fatullayev came up
during those talks or generally here in (inaudible)?
MR. BRYZA: There’s still — well, there’s still ongoing talks. We talked —
we didn’t get into the specifics of that particular case at this point, but
we’re going to do it probably tomorrow. And we’re talking, though, about the
broad range of reforms; democratic, security, the full range of reforms. So
we will have a discussion. Thanks.
DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER AZIMOV: Well, I’ve been asked to comment on this
issue as to — regarding repeatedly a given question on the case of a
journalist. I don’t think that it is related to the current agenda of my
presence here. On the other hand, we have another institutionalized
mechanism for consideration of issues related to human rights, democracy,
freedoms of mass media in Azerbaijan between the U.S. and Azerbaijan. That
group has its own agenda and I believe these issues can be addressed in that
fora.
The — on the other hand, this case should not be simplified to the way you
suggested and the full — the root causes and the situation there — this
might be more complicated than you’ve said. Also, I have never heard that in
Azerbaijan, anyone has been somewhat criticized for writing anything on a
particular topic, as you have formulated the Karabakh issue.
The conflict is very complicated. It’s a long one. It had many heavy results
for both nations, but of course, Azerbaijan is more suffering from that.
Continued occupation does not bring anyone any benefit and I think Armenia
has to get courage to deal with that — with that issue. There are many
other issues which both sides have to address. Therefore, these negotiations
will continue, I believe.
Nevertheless, after St. Petersburg meeting of two presidents, it was of
particular importance to see how intellectuals represented by some eminent
cultural leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia, including science, including
culture, education system led by two ambassadors, former colleagues — I
believe they have been ministers of culture on both sides — and proceeding
from their own desire to be helpful to societies, to give more knowledge
about position of each other, to see and to view the situation and to get
back the firsthand information, this all came across and resulted in this
initiative.
I wouldn’t draw now future continued efforts within this direction because
this initiative has been so far only one during last several months. And
further on, we shall expect results of that visit. The visit has not been
charged by a concrete task, because it was, again, an initiative of two
ambassadors of Azerbaijan and Armenia to Russia. But it was driven by a
desire to get more objective information and I think they managed; they
managed to gather this information.
And particularly important, I consider that the representatives of the
Armenian public, those who can influence the public opinion-making process
in Armenia, have been visiting Baku, seeing the development of the town,
viewing the level of attention to the issue of conflict and relations with
Armenia, having visited a building, an Armenian church which was once in the
time of normal relations, having seen how this building is being renovated,
maintained, cleaned, and used for cultural purposes, vis-à-vis your sad
story related to a mosque being knocked down and a mosque in Shusha.
And also finally, coming to see the President of Azerbaijan, President
Aliyev, having heard directly from him, a principle position of Azerbaijan
toward settlement of the conflict and being able to carry this information
without any distortion to their own back home — to their own fellow
colleagues in the — whatever scientific and cultural institutions, I hope
that this visit would help in further thinking and considering this
information which they received, again, without a distortion which
unfortunately, continuously takes place.
Thank you.