Azerbaijani, Georgian, Turkish FMs spread statement (PHOTO)

BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 23

Trend:

The full text of the statement adopted following the eighth trilateral meeting of the Azerbaijani, Georgian, Turkish foreign ministers has been released, Trend reports referring to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry.

The document was signed by Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mаmmаdyarov, Georgian Foreign Minister David Zalkaliani and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

At the invitation of Zalkaliani, the eighth meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries was held in Tbilisi, Georgia on December 23, 2019, with participation of Mаmmаdyarov and Cavusoglu.

The ministers emphasized their commitment to the Trabzon Declaration, the Batumi Joint Communique, and to the Ganja, Kars, Tbilisi, Baku and Istanbul Statements adopted in the previous trilateral meetings of the foreign ministers, as an important platform for both political dialogue and implementation of specific trilateral projects.

The sides expressed their satisfaction with the growing bilateral and trilateral cooperation among their countries and reaffirmed their strong commitment for further enhancing their collaboration based on the strategic partnership, good neighborliness, mutual respect and trust.

The ministers reconfirmed the mutual respect and strong support for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of the three states.

“In this regard, the existing conflicts in the region undermine peace, security, stability and economic development, thus status quo is neither sustainable nor acceptable and requires peaceful settlement without delay,” the statement said.

The sides reiterated the utmost importance of the lasting peaceful settlement of the conflict in the Georgian regions of Abkhazia and Tskhinvali region/South Ossetia and the conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the basis of universally recognized principles and norms of international law, particularly, sovereignty, territorial integrity and inviolability of the internationally recognized borders of states, as well as in accordance with relevant resolutions and decisions of the UN, the OSCE and the CoE.

The sides also underscored the necessity of safe and dignified return of the refugees and internally displaced people to their places of origin.

The ministers reaffirmed the importance of trilateral cooperation in the defense sphere, emphasized by MOU on Defense Cooperation of 2018 and underlined the necessity of further cooperation in defense industry, trilateral trainings, exercises and high level meetings. Therein, the sides welcomed the trilateral meeting of defense ministers in Gabala on June 12, 2019.