Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 14
Trend:
Azerbaijan cannot partake in the initiatives that contradict its interests, said Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev at a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of creation of the New Azerbaijan Party at the Heydar Aliyev Center Nov. 14.
“Our foreign policy has proved itself and today Azerbaijan is a country with a great reputation on international arena,” President Aliyev said. “We will pursue an independent foreign policy in the following years as well, and we are doing that right now. For not so big countries, it is not so easy to pursue an independent foreign policy, but that is very honorable. Some countries choose another path; some countries find shelter under the wings of other big countries. Maybe that is an easy way. But our path is a path of glory, a path of dignity, a path of independence. It is also the path to success, because the life and Azerbaijan’s role on global scale show that this is the only right policy.”
“The independent policy will be pursued further, and the main principle of this policy is the national and state interests of the Azerbaijani state and the Azerbaijani people. This is a main prerequisite for us. If these interests are secured, we certainly join those initiatives. If we see they contradict our interests, Azerbaijan, of course, cannot partake in those initiatives.”
Azerbaijan’s president believes that for each country relations with its neighbors are of particular importance.
“We have built very good and business relations with our neighbors on the basis of mutual respect and trust,” President Aliyev said. “On October 30-November 1, I had meetings with leaders of four neighboring countries and those two-three days marked the key events regarding the launch and development of both East-West and North-South transport corridors. And, of course, it would not be worth talking about these projects if we had no good relations with neighboring countries.”
“Today, Azerbaijan is rightly committed to becoming one of the transportation centers on the Eurasian continent,” added President Aliyev. “To get the status of a transit country in the field of transportation there should be warm relations with neighbors, and that is why this is the main priority of our foreign policy. It is very pleasing that we have no problems with neighboring countries.”