Azerbaijan `US important partner` on regional security
Azerbaijan is an important partner of the United
States on regional security and, in particular, counter-terrorism,
said Philip Gordon, US Assistant Secretary of State for European
and Eurasian Affairs, in a foreign policy report posted on the
State Department`s website.
In his statement before the Subcommittee on Europe of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Gordon said the country is also pivotal in helping the US`s European allies diversify their supplies of natural gas.
"Azerbaijan also exports nearly one million barrels of oil per day to global markets via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, free from geographic chokepoints (such as the Turkish Straits and the Straits of Hormuz) and from monopolistic pressures."
Further, Gordon indicated that the United States has helped generate new progress toward a settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict.
"Our U.S. Co-chair of the [mediating] OSCE`s Minsk Group, Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Bryza, joined his Russian and French colleagues in facilitating five meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian over the past year. Secretary Clinton has been personally engaged in a series of discussions with Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, including meetings with Foreign Ministers Mammadyarov and Nalbandian in Washington on May 5. I made my first trip to the Caucasus last week, where I visited Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to pursue our objectives in the region."
The assistant secretary noted that the meetings of Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian on May 7 in Prague and on June 4 in St. Petersburg "cleared the way to accelerate efforts to finalize a framework agreement by the end of 2009."
Gordon said that, along with Garabagh settlement efforts, the U.S. is encouraging Turkey and Armenia to normalize their strained relations.
"We believe these two processes should proceed separately, but in parallel, and at different speeds. Armenia and Turkey announced in their April 22 joint statement that they had "agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations." This represents an historic opportunity as Turkey and Armenia are closer than ever before to normalizing relations and re-opening their border."
In its section on Turkey, the report said the country is crucial to success in many of Washington`s most important foreign policy priorities, including stability and prosperity in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East, securing European energy diversity and resolving frozen conflicts and regional disputes.
"We support Turkey`s aspirations for eventual membership in the EU as Turkey advances reforms that will make it an even stronger partner. We encourage the EU to reach out to Turkey to demonstrate real prospects for membership. Doing so will serve as a catalyst for additional internal reforms. We are also encouraging Turkey to make additional needed reforms required to meet membership criteria, reforms that will strengthen Turkey`s democracy and economy. We encourage Turkey to take steps that will bolster its relations with its neighbors by re-opening the Halki Seminary and normalizing relations with Armenia, including a candid exploration of the two countries` sometimes tragic history."
The report said that Turkey is also at the center of US and European Union efforts to diversify European gas supplies by expanding a "Southern Corridor" of energy infrastructure to transport Caspian (and eventually Iraqi) gas to Europe.
In his statement before the Subcommittee on Europe of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Gordon said the country is also pivotal in helping the US`s European allies diversify their supplies of natural gas.
"Azerbaijan also exports nearly one million barrels of oil per day to global markets via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, free from geographic chokepoints (such as the Turkish Straits and the Straits of Hormuz) and from monopolistic pressures."
Further, Gordon indicated that the United States has helped generate new progress toward a settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict.
"Our U.S. Co-chair of the [mediating] OSCE`s Minsk Group, Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Bryza, joined his Russian and French colleagues in facilitating five meetings between Azerbaijani and Armenian Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sarkisian over the past year. Secretary Clinton has been personally engaged in a series of discussions with Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, including meetings with Foreign Ministers Mammadyarov and Nalbandian in Washington on May 5. I made my first trip to the Caucasus last week, where I visited Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia to pursue our objectives in the region."
The assistant secretary noted that the meetings of Presidents Aliyev and Sarkisian on May 7 in Prague and on June 4 in St. Petersburg "cleared the way to accelerate efforts to finalize a framework agreement by the end of 2009."
Gordon said that, along with Garabagh settlement efforts, the U.S. is encouraging Turkey and Armenia to normalize their strained relations.
"We believe these two processes should proceed separately, but in parallel, and at different speeds. Armenia and Turkey announced in their April 22 joint statement that they had "agreed on a comprehensive framework for the normalization of their bilateral relations." This represents an historic opportunity as Turkey and Armenia are closer than ever before to normalizing relations and re-opening their border."
In its section on Turkey, the report said the country is crucial to success in many of Washington`s most important foreign policy priorities, including stability and prosperity in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, achieving a lasting peace in the Middle East, securing European energy diversity and resolving frozen conflicts and regional disputes.
"We support Turkey`s aspirations for eventual membership in the EU as Turkey advances reforms that will make it an even stronger partner. We encourage the EU to reach out to Turkey to demonstrate real prospects for membership. Doing so will serve as a catalyst for additional internal reforms. We are also encouraging Turkey to make additional needed reforms required to meet membership criteria, reforms that will strengthen Turkey`s democracy and economy. We encourage Turkey to take steps that will bolster its relations with its neighbors by re-opening the Halki Seminary and normalizing relations with Armenia, including a candid exploration of the two countries` sometimes tragic history."
The report said that Turkey is also at the center of US and European Union efforts to diversify European gas supplies by expanding a "Southern Corridor" of energy infrastructure to transport Caspian (and eventually Iraqi) gas to Europe.
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