Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani and Turkish foreign ministers discussed issues of bilateral and regional cooperation as part of the Azerbaijani, Turkish, Turkmen foreign ministers’ trilateral meeting.

Foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Elmar Mammadyarov and Mevlut Cavusoglu met on August 28 in the Turkish city of Antalya, the Azerbaijani foreign ministry reported.

The ministers strongly condemned all forms of terrorism, in particular terrorist acts that have recently taken place in Turkey.

They also said following the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum projects, TAP and TANAP gas projects will play important role in ensuring Europe's energy security and will change the energy map of the region.

Further, they stressed that the unresolved Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict due to Armenia’s unconstructive position remains the main obstacle to peace and security in the South Caucasus region.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s.

The foreign ministers also stressed the importance of holding trilateral meetings, which in their opinion contributes to the development of cooperation between the three countries in the political, economic, energy, transport and other spheres.

Foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan Elmar Mammadyarov, Mevlut Cavusoglu and Rashid Meredov last met in Kuwait in May 2015 as part of the 42nd session of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

The first meeting in trilateral format was held in Baku in 2014. Baku Declaration was adopted following this meeting. Azerbaijani, Turkish and Turkmen foreign ministers also convened in the Turkmen capital, last January to further boost joint projects in transportation and communication.

The cooperation of the countries covers a wide range of issues, including energy, tourism, humanitarian sphere and politics.

The three mentioned countries decided to establish the Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan tripartite format in late 2013. Azerbaijan is also member of other two tripartite formats: Azerbaijan-Turkey-Georgia and Azerbaijan-Turkey-Iran.

--

Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz