Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb. 21 / Trend S.Aghayeva, E.Tariverdiyeva /
Azerbaijan's participation at such important forum as the G20 is a step ahead of our diplomacy and on this forum Azerbaijan raised very important issues on the international agenda, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elman Abdullayev told Trend on Tuesday.
"Such format is the format of the leaders, and it is an absolute success to be among the leaders and participate in discussions of this format," he said.
Of course, Azerbaijan's participation at the G20 is justified by the country's certain successes, Mr Abdullayev said.
G20 is a meeting of closed format, at which 10 countries are annually invited. Azerbaijan was for the first time represented at the G20. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov attended this meeting.
Mexico presides over G20 in 2012.
As FM of Mexico - chairman of the G20, said the development of Azerbaijan is an example of the formula of the country's success in the region. Azerbaijan has dynamic economy, which is growing after the global crisis, though many countries failed to recover after the global crisis. We have seen what is happening in the European Union countries - Greece, Portugal, Italy," Mr Abdullayev said.
He said there are two main points why Azerbaijan has been invited to this forum, which was sounded by Mexican FM at the opening of an informal meeting of foreign ministers of G20.
This is the growing role of Azerbaijan in international organizations: the election of the country to the UN Security Council, the election of Azerbaijan to leading positions of a number of authoritative bodies of UNESCO, joining the Non-Aligned Movement. All these factors point to the fact that Azerbaijan's position in the world strengthen, Mr Abdullayev believes.
"Azerbaijan, as a young state, is already becoming quite dynamic country. All of this is the basis, which led Azerbaijan to G20," Mr Abdullayev said.
He noted one of the most important moments for Azerbaijan was an invitation to Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan to preside over the session of the informal meeting of G20, where important questions were raised.
"We live in a very difficult region, the existing problems in this region are very well known to us. We raised issues relating to developing countries. Such questions as how to rapidly and effectively cope with the problems that now exist in developing countries were raised," he said.
Mr Abdullayev said Azerbaijani Foreign Minister urged developed countries to more actively engage in assistance to these countries.
Naturally, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan at the meeting raised the issue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said Mr Abdullaev.
"Azerbaijani Minister drew attention to the lack of mechanisms for implementation of decisions of international organizations, particularly the UN Security Council on security issues. In particular, he drew attention to the fact that the UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which have not yet been implemented. But Armenia ignores these resolutions," Mr Abdullayev stressed.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France and the U.S. - are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.