Azernews.Az

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is due to visit Baku on July 4, the top US diplomat for Europe, Philip Gordon, has said.
Gordon, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, told a news briefing that during the one-day visit, Clinton is expected to meet with the Azerbaijani president and foreign minister for talks focusing on the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh and US-Azerbaijan relations. The Secretary of State is also due to hold meetings with representatives of non-governmental organizations, with discussions to center on freedom of speech and civil participation in the country’s political life.
Later in the day, Clinton will leave Azerbaijan for Armenia. During her talks with Armenian leaders, along with Garabagh settlement, the parties will discuss the process of normalizing Armenia’s relations with Turkey, which have been strained for decades.
According to Gordon, during talks Clinton will stress to Azerbaijan and Armenia the importance of stepping effort to enforce the decisions passed within the mediating OSCE Minsk Group. He said the "we’ve seen in some of the violence that has appeared in the region lately that we can’t take stability for granted, and Armenia and Azerbaijan would both benefit from moving forward in the Minsk Group process." "And the Secretary will have a chance in both countries to underscore what the presidents said in Toronto the other day," added Gordon, referring to the statement issued by the presidents of Russia, the United States and France – the three countries co-chairing the Minsk Group - during a G8 summit in Canada.
"The presidents noted the progress that has been made up till now and the principles that should guide the discussions among the parties. And the United States is firmly committed to those principles and determined to work with the parties to encourage them down the same path. I think the G8 leaders made the statement, as they had in L’Aquila the previous year, demonstrating their commitment at the highest levels to the Minsk Group process and our desire to see progress on this issue."
In the joint statement, Presidents Dmitry Medvedev, Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy called on the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to accelerate work on the basic principles of the conflict settlement in order to begin drafting a peace accord.
Gordon also said the U.S. was concerned that the situation with Garabagh settlement "has been stuck for a lot longer than we would want it to be, and any time there’s an uptick in violence to any degree, it’s something that we’re very concerned about."
Asked whether or not Secretary Clinton would take to President Serzh Sarkisian in Yerevan the message on the withdrawal of Armenian forces from the Azerbaijani regions around Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh, which was mentioned in the presidents’ joint statement, the Assistant Secretary said: "I think all of the principles that the presidents noted in their statement in Toronto – all of them together are very important to us and we would like to see movement on all of them and commitment to all of them."
On July 5, Secretary Clinton is due to leave Yerevan for the Georgian capital Tbilisi.
Ali Hasanov, head of the Azerbaijan Presidential Administration socio-political department, has said Baku was attaching great importance to Secretary Clinton’s visit.
"Mrs. Clinton will convey firsthand her views on Azerbaijan-US relations, the US attitude toward these relations to Azerbaijani citizens during her meetings with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and other officials, unofficial and media representatives," Hasanov told reporters.
He noted that Azerbaijan deems as being of paramaount importance the support and position of the United States, as a superpower, on the Upper Garabagh conflict settlement, in particular, liberation of the Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani territories.
"Azerbaijan builds all of its relations with the world community on those countries’ attitude toward the Garabagh problem. Besides energy security, international security, combat against international terrorism, joint involvement in international peacemaking efforts, and cooperation in the areas of democracy and human rights, we are maintaining our ties with the U.S. while taking into account this country’s attitude toward Garabagh conflict settlement and the work it is doing to address this problem."
Clinton will be the first Secretary of State to visit Azerbaijan in the past eighteen years, following James Baker’s visit to the country.*