Azerbaijan, Baku, July 8 / Trend S.Agayeva /
Azerbaijan seeks to establish cooperative, symbiotic relations with both its neighboring countries and the international community, Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Fakhraddin Gurbanov told Cherwell edition.
An important objective of our foreign policy is to integrate within Euro-Atlantic structures of which Azerbaijan is already a member of Council of Europe, OSCE and NATO Peace for Partnership. Our single largest priority, however, is the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Azerbaijan continues to positively engage with the international efforts aimed at resolving our territorial dispute with Armenia. Through the OSCE Minsk group, we hope to achieve a long lasting and comprehensive solution on this issue, Gurbanov said.
He said the United Kingdom was one of the first countries to recognize Azerbaijani independence and continues to maintain the positive dynamic tone that our bilateral relations started with. The United Kingdom is the largest investor in Azerbaijan with over half of all Foreign Direct Investment in Azerbaijan coming from British companies.
Today, there are over 170 British companies and 5000 British expatriates who live and work in Azerbaijan, Gurbanov added.
Azerbaijan supports the UK on a variety of fronts from preserving human security in the Balkans to peace building operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, he said.
"Azerbaijan's strategic location as a gateway between Europe and Central Asia has played a huge role in our economic relations," Gurbanov said. "Our oil and gas resources form the backbone of our economy. Responsible and reliable suppliers back our principal export of energy commodities. Furthermore, we cooperate with the United Kingdom to implement energy projects across the region."
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