POLITICS
Azerbaijani and Turkish FM hold joint press conference
Baku, November 27 AZERTAC
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu have held joint press conference.
Minister Mammadyarov said he was very glad to welcome the Turkish FM in Baku. “We discussed a number of issues of mutual interest with my counterpart at one-by-one and multilateral meetings. Firstly, I briefly informed Mr. Minister about the current state of negotiation process over Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As you probably know, Foreign Minister of Russia, Sergey Lavrov, visited Baku and Yerevan in the previous months. Minister Lavrov put forward certain proposal in order to give an impetus to the negotiation process.” The Minister said.
Mr. Mammadyarov said the proposal was presented on behalf of the Minsk Group Co-chairs. The Minister added: “Presence of military forces of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia has been and remains a major hurdle in the process. It is also main obstacle for security, social welfare and development of economy in the region. As an outcome of the last visit by Co-chairs, holding the meeting of Presidents was proposed. Azerbaijan positively responded to the proposal. The meeting to be likely held in coming month; until the end of the year. Co-chairs are working on arrangement of the meeting right now.”
The Minister also said they exchanged views on mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of energy. “Azerbaijan and Turkey share the same position on this issue. TANAP project is being implemented in a timely manner. Yesterday, within the meeting with my Georgian counterpart in Tbilisi we agreed on holding trilateral meeting till the end of the year and the Turkish FM also supported the idea.” “Probably, the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey will be held in Georgia till the end of the year. We plan to visit the sector of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in Georgian territory following the meeting. We do believe that this project of high importance will be completed by the beginning of the next year. Turkey is planning to deliver its part of railway project till the beginning of the next year. I am pretty much sure that the implementation of railway project will give a new turn to the advanced relationship between our countries.”
The Turkish FM applauded both countries` ties. The Minister also added trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Turkmen FM`s would be held in next year.
The Minister said Turkey supports Azerbaijan in Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.