France, Strasburg, 8 May / corr. Trend A. Maharramli/ The foreign minister of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov believes that the inter-culture and inter-religion dialogue has become one of the important issues in the modern world which interests the international community.
"Dialogue between the nations is one of the important issues in the modern world and Azerbaijan attaches great importance to its cooperation and inter-cultural relations," Mammadyarov said on 7 May during his speech in the 188th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Strasburg.
The foreign minister stressed the importance of expanding relations with the Council of Europe and other international organizations including the Organization of Islamic Conference where Azerbaijan has a membership.
The minister said that an official conference of European culture ministers will be held in December 2008 in Azerbaijan dedicated to the inter-culture dialogue of civilizations. The representatives of the Council of Europe, ISESCO and ALESCO will take part in the conference.
The unsolved conflicts in several regions of Europe are a source of anxiety, he said.
He stressed the importance of solving the conflicts soon and said that they are threat to security, development and good relations between the countries.
" Azerbaijan complies with talks held within the OSEC Minsk group on Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and is committed to the international law and principles," the minister said.
"The position of Azerbaijan in settling the conflict with Armenia has not changed: the withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the occupied lands of Azerbaijan, re-integration of Nagorno-Karabakh to political, economic, judicial and social systems of Azerbaijan, the restoration of territories which suffered from the conflict, the return of IDPs to their own land and creating favourable conditions for both Armenian and Azerbaijani communities in Nagorno-Karabakh to live together. All the necessary conditions for this purpose will be created only after the status of Nagorno-Karabakh is determined as a part of Azerbaijan," the foreign minister said.
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