BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 23
Trend:
With United States our relations are less diversified than with Russia and this is obvious because with Russia we have a long history of communications and we are neighbors. Therefore, with Russia our relations are very diversified. They cover almost every area, President Ilham Aliyev said during the video conference entitled ‘South Caucasus: Prospects for Regional Development and Cooperation’ held by Nizami Ganjavi International Center, Trend reports.
“With the United States our main areas of cooperation are counter-terrorism, peace-keeping operations whether it’s in Iraq or in Afghanistan, now energy security and some other areas. The policy of both countries towards Azerbaijan has always been stable and predictable, as well as our policy towards these countries. With both countries we have relations of strategic importance. Of course it’s different agenda but very open, very clear and without any surprises, because we always say what we mean and we always stand behind the words we pronounce. I think that’s one of the reasons why we managed to establish good relations with many countries and not only Russia and United States are among these countries which don’t have good relations between themselves. So, I think that the policy of the United States and Russia with respect to Azerbaijan will continue to be very stable, and my recent communications with high-ranking officials, with President of Russia, with national Security Adviser of the United States and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia demonstrate that we really want to expand our cooperation and both sides consider these relations as strategically important. So, after resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, I think it will be easier to plan for the future because this conflict was to certain degree blocking some areas of cooperation where we could have very active format of cooperation and couldn’t have it due to that reason. So, resolution of Nagorno-Karabakh conflict creates absolutely new atmosphere and we hope that Russia and the United States will continue to play big importance to our country,” the head of state said.