Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept.24
By Sabina Ahmadova - Trend:
A lot of people in the U.S. appreciate what Azerbaijan is doing, Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan Rafael Harpaz told Trend on Sept.23.
He added that Azerbaijan's Ambassador to the U.S. Elin Suleymanov also did a wonderful job.
The ambassador said the goal of his recent visit to the U.S. was to speak about Azerbaijan as a model for a tolerant country, especially its relations with the Jewish community.
During the visit, there were meetings in Washington, with Congress and State Department, Jewish organizations, economic companies, and the same in Philadelphia and New York. Moreover, several events were held during this visit.
"We described the special relations between Israel and Azerbaijan, political relations, economic relations, trade relations, cultural relations, agriculture and etc. The second issue we discussed was Azerbaijan as a top model for tolerance," Harpaz said.
The ambassador also said that the visit of Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon to Azerbaijan to take part in the International Defense Industry Exhibition (ADEX 2014) was of great significance.
He said this visit demonstrated good relations between the two countries.
During the visit, Yaalon met Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Defense Minister Zakir Hasanov, Minister of Defense Industry Yaver Jamalov and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.
"There is very good cooperation between our defense industries. Also it is the first time that Azerbaijan organizes such exhibition. I think it was a great success. Defense minister was very satisfied with his visit."
Harpaz said that the number of visits of Israeli officials to Azerbaijan has increased in 2014. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman and a delegation of the Knesset visited Baku in 2014.
"There will be few visits as far as I know for the Humanitarian Forum in Azerbaijan. We are going to have Israeli delegation. Delegation from Azerbaijani Ministry of Telecommunication and companies are going to Israeli Homeland Security Conference in November."
The ambassador also touched upon the nomination of a new candidate for the Israeli ambassador to Azerbaijan.
"First I would tell you that I am going to be here until August, 2015. In Israel we are appointing ambassadors a year before. We need a process of approval of the Israeli government and an agreement with Azerbaijani government," Harpaz said.
Edited by CN