Azerbaijan, Baku, June 28 /Trend E.Mehdiyev/
Today, Baku hosted an international conference 'Joint efforts for the sake of Caucasus` future: Past 20 years and its lessons'.
The conference, organised jointly by the Centre for Strategic Studies under the President of Azerbaijan and magazines Caucasus International and Turkish Policy Quarterly was attended by former the Armenian president's adviser Jirair Libaridian President of the Foundation for Strategic and International Studies, Alexander Rondeli Georgia and Azerbaijani MP political analyst Rasim Musabekov.
As Rondeli pointed out in his speech, looking back we can say that during that period the newly independent post-Soviet countries have forgotten what a strategic culture is.
"After gaining independence we thought about pursuing a state building policy. We thought that everything would be better, but we had no strategic culture. Ethnic nationalism annihilated Georgia. We try to solve this problem. We haven't got the necessary results yet." the Georgian expert said.
Rondeli said the representatives of the new revolutionary group on the one hand and the authoritarian forces came to power and try to find a common point in security and democracy. They achieve successes in some cases, but there are still difficulties, Rondeli stressed.
"Georgia is a multinational country. We must find a common formula to this issue," he added.
Libaridyan, in turn said he is glad to be in Baku and hopes to find new friends here.
"We thought that after the Soviet Union split up the cold war would end, but it did not end in the South Caucasus. Through external forces the cold war is going on. We do not know how long this mini cold war will last, but it is already clear that independence does not mean that you can do as you want," the former Armenian president's adviser said.
He said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is not only a problem of the two countries. It is also the problem of Georgia, because it's very difficult to implement joint projects in such situations.
Azerbaijani MP and political scientist Rasim Musabekov noted that today Azerbaijan's economy makes up more than 70 per cent of the economy of the entire South Caucasus. We can say that Azerbaijan holds 90 per cent of the financial capacity of the Southern Caucasus.
"Today the economy of Azerbaijan is five to six times larger than the economy of Armenia and Georgia. It can be associated with the oil, but oil in Azerbaijan is the traditional sector. On the other hand, the conclusion and implementation of oil contracts is a very difficult question. It was even more difficult to include this issue in the agenda. As a result of a careful policy, oil pipelines were built and the implementation of these projects reduced Azerbaijan's dependence on Russia. Today, the infrastructure of Azerbaijan has grown many times," Musabekov said.
Azerbaijan is far ahead Armenia in terms of military construction, he added.
"Azerbaijan has achieved this development due to its own capabilities. As long as Armenia's dependence on Russia continues, neither the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be settled, nor joint regional projects will be implemented," the analyst said.