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Novruz Mammadov: â€œAzerbaijan has pursued and will pursue comprehensively weighed up and independent foreign policyâ€ â€“ EXCLUSIVE

Novruz Mammadov: â€œAzerbaijan has pursued and will pursue comprehensively weighed up and independent foreign policyâ€ â€“ <font color=red>EXCLUSIVE </font>

18 April 2009 12:43 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Lachin Sultanova â€“APA. â€œThe working visit of the President of Azerbaijan to Moscow has been planned since the beginning of this year. Despite that some politicians, journalists and political analysts explained it as they like, but they were wrongâ€, Chief of the International Relations Department of the Presidentâ€™s Office Novruz Mammadov told APA, commenting on the President Ilham Aliyevâ€™s visit to Russia.

â€œWe have very close relations with our big neighbor Russia, we have friendly relations and strategic partnership and these relations are extended year by year. Meetings and relations between the Azerbaijani and Russian leadership have a traditional character. These processes take place every year and the presidents meet in various places. I give great importance to this visitâ€, said the department chief and added that the visit was very important and covered a;; specters of bilateral relations.

Mammadov said the presidents have wide discussions on the future prospects of the relations. â€œOur relationship is very developed in the trade, economic, humanitarian and energy fields. It needs to take it into consideration that Russian Federation is important for Azerbaijan as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, the mediator in the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the solution to the conflict was also focused at the meetings. The presidents said at the briefing that they had very useful meetings and found out new opportunities for the cooperation in a number of spheres, including the energy field particularly. The President of Azerbaijan noted that they had wide discussions over the solution to Nagorno Karabakh conflict. The Russian president said Russia made all efforts to bring inline the positions of Armenia and Azerbaijanâ€.

Mammadov emphasized that Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents could meet this year. â€œIf we take the current situation and processes into consideration, there is a great probability for the progressesâ€.

Asked â€œWhat is your view on Turkish media reports claiming Azerbaijan has opted to give up a balance in foreign policy orientation and tilted towards Russia,â€ he answered that Azerbaijan has pursued and will continue to pursue a balanced, comprehensively weighed up and independent foreign policy.

â€œAzerbaijanâ€™s relations with Turkey are at the high level and relations have always been on track of development. We are committed to continuing this afterwards. I also highly appreciate the relations between Azerbaijan and the United States. At the same time, Azerbaijanâ€™s relations with the West are and will be developing apace. There are frequent visits to Russia, there are frequent meetings, these possibilities come true, there is no need to interpret this in another way. Azerbaijanâ€™s doors for cooperation are open in all vectors. Our relations with the West are at the high level, I highly appreciate this. But in my personal view, unfortunately, I canâ€™t see adequate reaction in the Westâ€™s relationship with Azerbaijan. Since we gained independence, Azerbaijanâ€™s steps directed to energy and integration. We carried out many reforms in conjunction with NATO and European Union. In return for these, we see very great care an attention to Armenia which have continued to occupy 20 percent of our territories over the past 20 years. I note that this is not a fair position. I donâ€™t understand so much love, attention and care [they devote] to an aggressor. Everybody sees the West has recently moved to take all steps to ease and improve the state and wellbeing of a country which occupied Azerbaijanâ€™s territories. I canâ€™t understand this,â€ he added.

Asked â€œwhich areas Azerbaijan wants to see prioritized in the Eastern Partnership Programmeâ€, he said that this will be discussed in an EU meeting in May.
â€œAzerbaijani President will express the countryâ€™s position during the discussion. Simply, we want the fate of Eastern Partnership Initiative not to be as that of the European Neighborhood Policy. We joined the European Neighborhood Policy, what steps did Europe take in return? What did the EU want to do? What did? It is not possible to this clearly. Within the framework of the Eastern Partnership, we would like everything to be fair, a special programme to be developed for each country, concrete steps to be taken and initiatives to be developed,â€ he added.