Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Bilateral relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, as well as issues of security and stability in the region became the main topics of the meeting between President Ilham Aliyev and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs Bridget Brink in Baku.

President Aliyev, who received the visiting U.S. official on November 22, recalled broad discussions on bilateral relations and regional issues that they held with Bridget Brink this summer.

The head of state expressed hope that successful cooperation between the two countries would be continued with the new administration of the U.S.

Brink highlighted her country's strong support for Azerbaijan, as well as for the entire region. She said the U.S. has carried out consistent policy in this regard for a long time.

They had a broad exchange of views over the current state and prospects of relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S. The solution to the long-lasting Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was also discussed during the meeting.

The bloody war, which flared up in the late 1980s due to Armenia's territorial claims against Azerbaijan, led to occupation of 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions by Armenian armed forces.

In a cruel war more than 20,000 Azerbaijanis were killed and over 1 million were displaced as a result of the large-scale hostilities, while over 4,000 ethnic Azerbaijanis were taken captive, hostage, or went missing as a result of the war.

Since gaining independence Azerbaijan has always been the strategic partner of the U.S. in the South Caucasus. During the presidency of American leaders over the past 25 years relations between the U.S. and Azerbaijan always showed positive trend.

Azerbaijan and the U.S. enjoy a strong strategic partnership founded on shared values and interests. A strong partnership with the U.S. plays a major role in Azerbaijan’s foreign policy. This has held true ever since the U.S. recognized Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991 and moved swiftly to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries.

Over this period, the friendly and cooperative relations between the countries have risen to a high level. The two countries are actively cooperating in political, economic, energy and security spheres, including in the fight against international terrorism and in NATO peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan.

The outcome of the presidential elections in the U.S. continues to be one of the central topics on media and world policy. The victory of construction magnate Donald Trump in the U.S. elections was oversurprising, who broke into the big politics, refuting analysts' forecasts over and over again.

Addressing the meeting with a group of participants of the 5th News Agencies World Congress in Baku, President Aliyev said that people of America showed Trump their great support despite all the polls and expectations of the leading American media and despite aggressive campaign against him.

“My personal opinion is very positive," noted the president. “He owns this election only to himself. He deserves great respect.”

Azerbaijan wishes success to the newly elected U.S. President Donald Trump, said the president, voicing his hope that relations between the two countries will continue successfully during his presidency as they developed in the previous years.

President Aliyev said there are a lot of areas of cooperation, including political, economic and other areas.

He went on to add that there are great expectations in the world with respect to Trump’s policy.

Several days after the elections in the U.S. Ilham Aliyev made a phone call to President-elect of the United States Trump to congratulate him on his victory in the presidential election, and wished him success in his high state activity.

The fact that the newly elected president talked with Ilham Aliyev before contacting with many European leaders surprised many people outside of Azerbaijan, which showed an increasing importance of Azerbaijan for the U.S.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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