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Top official: Baku plans to strengthen co-op with Russia

17 July 2017 17:24 (UTC+04:00)
Top official: Baku plans to strengthen co-op with Russia

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan in its foreign policy considers the interests of the Russian Federation, said Novruz Mammadov, assistant to Azerbaijan’s president for foreign policy issues.

In an interview with RIA Novosti agency, Mammadov said that Baku plans to expand and strengthen cooperation with Russia.

Touching upon closing down of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress by Russia’s Supreme Court, Mammadov said that this issue and a number of strong statements of the country’s Foreign Ministry regarding Baku caused misunderstanding.

The Supreme Court of Russia, on the basis of an appeal by the Justice Ministry of the Russian Federation, liquidated the registration of the All-Russian Azerbaijani Congress on May 15.

The Congress, which unites more than 2 million Azerbaijanis living almost in all regions of Russia, was established in 2001 on the initiative of national leader of Azerbaijan Heydar Aliyev and President Vladimir Putin.

Throughout 16 years of its activity, the organization has played a huge role in strengthening of civil peace and interethnic harmony in Russia, development and deepening of socio-economic and cultural cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan.

Baku and Moscow are tied by firmly based ties, which were officially established in 1992. The Azerbaijani-Russian cooperation is completely based on the principles of mutual respect and good neighborly relations.

Russia is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan, ranking second in commodity turnover, the first in the import of products and the eighth in exports. About 31 percent of Azerbaijan's non-oil exports fall on Russia, which is the first among Azerbaijan's trade partners in this indicator.

Talking about current relations in the world, the top official said that it is very difficult to talk about success in international relations, because the world failed to maintain the principles of justice after the termination of the Warsaw Pact.

The Warsaw Pact, formally the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance was signed between Albania, Bulgaria, Hungary, East Germany, Poland, Romania, USSR and Czechoslovakia on May 14, 1955. In 1985, it was extended for 20 years, but on July 1, 1991, members of the Warsaw Treaty Organization signed a protocol on the complete termination of the treaty.

The reason for the world’s becoming like this today is the lack of justice, said Mammadov.

“After the Warsaw Pact, the world failed to maintain the principles of justice. It makes no sense to talk about universal values, if there is no justice in international relations,” he added.

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