Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 30
Trend:
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Baku within the framework of the first trilateral meeting of foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the press service of Azerbaijan’s Foreign Ministry told Trend.
The ministers expressed satisfaction with the high level of development of cooperation between the two brotherly countries in all fields and in various formats, as well as the strategic nature of political relations.
Furthermore, the ministers stressed the importance of high level visits by the heads of state, particularly the participation of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev as special guest at the 9th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (D-8) in Istanbul on October 20, 2017 which was followed by the visit of President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Azerbaijan to attend the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway.
At the meeting, the results of the sixth meeting of the Azerbaijan-Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council, which was recently held in Baku with the participation of the presidents of both countries, were commended and views were exchanged on the issues on the agenda.
The ministers stressed the importance of the West-East transport corridor and expressed confidence that the launch of the BTK railway will make significant contribution to the development of the region and cooperation among the countries. It was noted that the project will provide ample opportunities for the growth of trade turnover and people to people contacts.
The ministers emphasized the importance of the Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process and the 7th Ministerial Conference within the framework of the Process hosted by Azerbaijan.
Referring to Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov said that contrary to the demands of the UN Security Council resolutions, presence of troops of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan continues to pose a serious threat to the whole region.
Mammadyarov also informed his counterpart on the current status of negotiation process on the settlement of the conflict.
The ministers also noted that Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Iran-Turkey and Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan-Turkey trilateral formats are developing successfully and expressed hope that Azerbaijan-Turkey-Pakistan format will also promote the development of cooperation among the countries and will become an important platform.
The ministers exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest.