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John Kerry accepts Elmar Mammadyarovâ€™s invitation to pay official visit to Azerbaijan - UPDATED

John Kerry accepts Elmar Mammadyarovâ€™s invitation to pay official visit to Azerbaijan - <span style="color: red;">UPDATED

04 June 2013 07:38 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva – APA. As a part of his visit to Washington, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Foreign Ministry’s press service told APA. Stressing that Azerbaijan is an important partner for the US, Kerry noted Azerbaijan’s contribution to NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan, the energy security of Europe and important role in other significant issues for the US. Stating that Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict is a threat to the regional stability, the Secretary of State noted the US, as a co-chair country of the OSCE Minsk Group, will contribute to solving the conflict and stressed that the US is interested in the settlement of this conflict.

In his turn, Elmar Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan attaches special attention to bilateral relations with the US and expressed confidence that the successful cooperation in economy, investment and energy spheres, as well as within the international organizations will further enhance. Speaking about the negotiations on the peaceful solution of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the minister noted that the status quo must be changed. Elmar Mammadyarov also stressed that in order to achieve progress in the negotiations, first of all Armenia must withdraw its troops from the occupied territories.

During the meeting, Elmar Mammadyarov invited John Kerry to pay an official visit to Baku. Kerry said he is interested in such a visit and accepted the invitation with great pleasure.

08:08

Baku. Victoria Dementyeva- APA. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pledged on Monday to continue efforts to help end the long- running conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh between Azerbaijan and Armenia.

Prior to a meeting with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov at the State Department, Kerry said "This is a frozen conflict, as we call it, one that threatens the stability of the region and one that we need to deal with."

"The last thing we want is a return to war and to conflict," stressed the top American envoy, whose country co-chairs the Minsk Group of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe along with Russia and France, which has been mediating the conflict.

"I believe there is a path forward, and we will continue to work quietly and patiently in an effort to try to encourage the parties to be able to take either confidence-building measures that may get to further down the road, or to find a way towards a settlement with respect to this issue," Kerry added.

The Azerbaijani minister said he believed his country can move past the challenges with the help of the United States. "All the negative outcome of the conflict will be in the past, and we will look to the bright future of successful cooperation and living next to each other as a good neighborhood," he added.