Baku, Azerbaijan, July 24
By Elchin Mehdiyev - Trend:
The European Council President Donald Tusk's visit to Baku shows that Azerbaijan is holding an important place in the EU's foreign policy both in the multilateral and bilateral formats, Musa Gasimli, the Azerbaijani parliament member, told Trend.
Gasimli said that without Azerbaijan the EU can achieve nothing in the region.
He added that Azerbaijan plays a crucial role in Europe's energy security.
"The visit [by Tusk] proved that the EU highly appreciates Azerbaijan's role in ensuring the European countries' energy security, and also highly appreciates the importance of the energy projects authored by Baku," said the MP.
He added that Azerbaijan has some expectations from cooperation with the EU.
"These include the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which resulted from the occupation by Armenia, and the protection of national interests," said Gasimli.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
The two countries signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the US are currently holding peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented the UN Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
Edited by SI