U.S. New-York, June 29 / Trend K.Pashayeva /
There are all prerequisites to that the Baku-Washington relations will improve, said Thomas de Waal, Senior Associate for the Caucasus at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington
"Afghanistan, oil and gas and the situation on the contact line of the Azerbaijani and Armenian troops will be the main topics of conversation," Waal said.
The U.S.-Azerbaijani relations have suffered in the last year, De Waal said.
"The lack of an ambassador in Baku and the non-invitation to President Ilham Aliyev to the nuclear summit in April hurt relations," De Waal said.
According to de Waal, lobbying the Armenian-Turkish process, the U.S. should have further consultations with Baku.
De Waal said more broadly, the American politicians' visit to the South Caucasus is designed to inform the countries of the region that the "reset" policy with Russia is not going to be at their expense.
"There is still a lot of suspicion both in the Caucasus and Washington that this administration is pursuing a "Russia first" or "Russia only" policy," De Waal said.
A better relationship between Washington and Moscow should be good for the countries of the region: Moscow will be more predictable and have more incentives to behave well so as not to wreck its improving relationship with Washington, he believes.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Ukraine, Poland, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia July 1-5.
"Hillary Clinton is going to visit Kyiv, Krakow, Baku, Yerevan and Tbilisi during her journey in July 1-5," the U.S. State Department reported.
"The Secretary will continue on to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia, where she will hold meetings with government officials and civil society leaders to discuss bilateral issues, as well as issues related to regional peace and stability," the department's report says.
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