Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 18 /Trend, V.Zhavoronkova/
The priorities of the US in Azerbaijan continue to lie at security, energy, democratic and economic reforms, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns told journalists on Tuesday.
"We are working together on global challenges such as combating extremism and diversifying energy supply," he said.
"I hope that this trip helps to reinforce what Secretary Clinton said during her own visit to Azerbaijan last year that the relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan are deep, important and durable," he stressed.
Burns said that is as true now as it was then.
"Today President Aliyev and I discussed the way in which we can further deepen our strong bilateral relationship. I emphasized the importance that President Obama and Secretary Clinton attach to the partnership between our two countries," he added.
Burns expressed his gratitude to President Ilham Aliyev for Azerbaijan's important contribution to international security efforts including in Afghanistan.
"We also talked about the importance of civil society and I stressed again the importance of democratic and economic reforms which are so deeply in an interest of the people of Azerbaijan," he added.
He said he also met with a dynamic group of civil society leaders. "I had an opportunity to hear their ideas and express support for their efforts," Burns said.
He stressed that Azerbaijan is a country of enormous potential. "The U.S. is committed to realize that potential and build mutually beneficial and mutually respectful relations," he added.
"We continue to express our concern on the situation," he said commenting on human rights in the country.
"We continue to believe that it is deeply in the interest of the people of Azerbaijan to strengthen the role of law, to respect universal right and to build strong democratic institution," Burns added.
He said there is clearly a lot of work to be done. "The US will continue as we have in a past, to express our support to democratic as well as economic resource," Burns said.