Baku, November 17, AZERTAC

Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Portuguese Republic Augusto Santos Silva have signed “Agreement on economic cooperation between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Portuguese Republic” in Lisbon.

Prior to the signing ceremony, they held a bilateral meeting.

The ministers reviewed the current status of relations between Azerbaijan and Portugal.

The sides stressed the importance of development of the bilateral cooperation within international organizations and continuation of mutual supports in this regard. They also refereed to the political consultations between the foreign ministries of the two countries.

Foreign Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva noted that this visit makes a significant contribution to the development of relations between the two countries.

Informing his colleague on the latest status of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Elmar Mammadyarov underscored that according to the norms and principles of international law and in compliance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council the conflict has to be only settled on the basis of territorial integrity, sovereignty and internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan. FM Mammadyarov also stated that the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair countries at the level of heads of state declared the fact of unacceptability and unsustainability of the current status-quo. He stressed that the attempts to change the internationally recognized borders of states by use force is unacceptable. He added that Armenia by resorting to the acts of provocations pursues the deliberate policy of undermining the negotiation process and maintaining the current status-quo which is based on the fact of occupation. Minister Mammadyarov mentioned that Portugal’s support to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and its position on the settlement of conflict in compliance with the norms and principles of international law and the Helsinki Final Act is highly appreciated.

Reiterating his country’s support to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan, Augusto Santos Silva underlined that this position based on the norms and principles of international law will be continued.

The two ministers also commended the decision of European Union Council to give a mandate to the EU Commission to launch negotiations with the Republic of Azerbaijan on strategic partnership agreement. They expressed conviction that this agreement will have a positive impact on the comprehensive development of bilateral relations between EU and Azerbaijan.

Augusto Santos Silva said that his country supports the development of Azerbaijan-EU relations.

At the meeting they also stressed existence of potential for increasing the trade turnover between the two countries. In this context, importance of taking further steps to further the cooperation in non-oil sector, such as tourism, agriculture, food and light industry was highlighted.

The ministers spoke about the importance of holding business forums to forge contacts between the private companies and business circles of two countries.

After the meeting the ministers held a joint press conference. In the press conference Foreign Minister of Portugal Augusto Santos Silva reiterated his country’s support to the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Azerbaijan and mentioned that this stance based on the norms and principles of international law will be continued.