POLITICS
US ATTACH GREAT IMPORTANCE TO MUTUAL CO-OP WITH AZERBAIJAN IN THE FIELD OF DEFENSE AND SECURITY
Greeting the guest, defense minister of Azerbaijan stated that every meeting of the US-Azerbaijan delegations gives a new impulse to the bilateral relations of the two countries. The Minister said: “The other day we had comprehensive exchange with the Defense Secretary of the United States Mr. Donald Ramsfeld on military co-op of the two countries. And today, in the frame of our bilateral cooperation, we shall have concrete and detailed talks. We have to do a lot”.
Expressing her gratitude for warm attention and hospitality shown to the US delegation, Ms. Rikardel said: The United States attaches great importance to the support Azerbaijan renders in combat against international terrorism. We regularly receive information on high level of the Azerbaijani national peacemakers in Afghanistan and Iraq. This has a positive impact on our relations in both regional and global security.
The efforts for development of our bilateral relations aims at strengthening of state independence of Azerbaijan, growth of the country’s power and opportunities. In this context, we attach a great importance to active participation of Azerbaijan in the NATO PfP Program and we shall continue to support this activity”.
Expressing her gratitude to Ms. Rikardel for kind words, colonel-general Safar Abiyev stressed that the NATO-Azerbaijani relations would constantly develop and the PfP Program would cover increasingly more spheres.
The defense minister also noted that Azerbaijan attaches great importance to the existing co-op between the two countries in the field of defense and security and the reached conclusions would yield positive results in provision of security of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil and Baku-Erzurm gas pipelines, security of the Caspian and in realization of other large-scale international projects.
The parties had a comprehensive exchange of views on a number of issues of mutual interest.
Also participating was at the meeting the ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States Hafiz Pashayev and the US ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish.