Baku, November 30, AZERTAC

Foreign ministers Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and Mevlut Cavusoglu of Turkey have hailed cooperation between the two countries in all fields and in various formats as they met on the sidelines of the First Trilateral Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Republic Azerbaijan, Republic of Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Baku. They pointed out the strategic nature of the bilateral political relations.

The ministers stressed the importance of high level visits by the heads of state, particularly the participation of President Ilham Aliyev as a guest of honor in the 9th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (D-8) in Istanbul in October, which was followed by the visit of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Azerbaijan to attend the opening ceremony of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway.

The two noted the significance of the West-East transport Corridor and expressed confidence that the launch of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will make a significant contribution to the development of the region and cooperation among the countries. The ministers noted that the project will provide ample opportunities for increasing trade and people-to-people contacts.

The two also emphasized the importance of the Heart of Asia- Istanbul Process and the 7th Ministerial Conference in the framework of the Process hosted by Azerbaijan.

Pointing out the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov said that contrary to the demands of the UN Security Council resolutions, presence of troops of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan continues to pose a serious threat to the whole region.

They also emphasized that Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey, Azerbaijan-Iran-Turkey and Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan-Turkey trilateral formats are developing successfully and expressed hope that Azerbaijan-Turkey-Pakistan format will also promote the development of cooperation among the countries and will become an important platform.