Munich, February 17, AZERTAC

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has met with United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Munich, at the latter’s request.

Greeting the Azerbaijani leader, Antony Blinken said, “Good afternoon, Mr. President. I very much appreciate this opportunity to spend time with Mr. President Aliyev. We’ve had many opportunities for the last few years to speak and to meet. I think this is an important time for Azerbaijan taking on a leadership of COP. This is something we strongly support. We look forward into doing anything we can to make that successful, but also in pursuing a durable and dignified peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. The United States has worked to be helpful and will continue to do so. As requested, there a lot to talk about, and Mr. President, thank you so much for spending your time today.”

President Ilham Aliyev said, “Thank you, Mr. Secretary. As you mentioned, COP-29 is an important part of our bilateral agenda. So, it expands actually the topics on our agenda and we count on your support from your government in all our initiatives during this year. As Mr. Secretary mentioned, we have also one issue on our agenda, which is the regional situation in the Caucasus, particularly, prospects for peace settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan is committed to peace and reaching a peace agreement as soon as possible, which is in our national interests. I am grateful to the United States and personally to Mr. Secretary for his efforts in this direction.”

x x x

Antony Blinken hailed the bilateral relations with Azerbaijan, highlighting the favorable prospects for strengthening ties and cooperation between the two countries.

President Ilham Aliyev, in turn, highlighted that Azerbaijan highly values its bilateral agenda with the United States and emphasized the favorable opportunities for expanding partnership between the two countries.

The U.S. Secretary of State extended congratulations on Azerbaijan’s hosting COP29 and expressed the United States' readiness to cooperate with Azerbaijan and support the country within the framework of COP.

President Ilham Aliyev expressed gratitude for the congratulations and emphasized that COP29 provides excellent opportunities for enhancing cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States and for conducting joint work in this direction.

The head of state underscored Azerbaijan's support for the normalization of relations and the peace agenda with Armenia. He highlighted the bilateral meeting with the Prime Minister of Armenia, which took place during the Munich Security Conference, and evaluated as a positive step the agreements reached on negotiations for a peace treaty and meetings on border delimitation.

President Ilham Aliyev, recognizing the existing de facto peace in the region, underscored the importance of further enhancing Azerbaijan-US bilateral relations beyond the ongoing normalization process between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

They also exchanged views on topics such as regional connectivity, transportation, the Middle Corridor, and other areas of mutual interest.