Azernews.Az

BAKU – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said while hosting the newly appointed European Union special envoy for the South Caucasus Philippe Lefort on Monday that a new stage has begun in the EU’s relations with the regional countries.

Aliyev voiced confidence that this cooperation would continue to expand, according to the president’s press service.

Lefort, for his part, said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was keen on boosting cooperation with the regional states.

Along with development of multi-faceted EU-Azerbaijan collaboration, the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh was discussed during President Aliyev’s meeting with Lefort.

In the EU official’s meeting with Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev on the same day, discussions focused on ways of resolving the Nagorno Karabakh conflict and the EU’s potential contribution to the settlement of the dispute, which is being brokered by the United States, Russia and France through the OSCE Minsk Group.

Lefort also had a meeting with representatives of the Azerbaijani community of Nagorno Karabakh, an Azerbaijani region that has been under Armenian occupation, along with seven surrounding districts, since a precarious cease-fire was signed in 1994 following a lengthy war.

Lefort’s two-day visit to Azerbaijan is the first one being paid within his new mandate. Lefort was appointed EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus in late August to succeed Peter Semneby, and will act in this capacity from September 2011 until July 2012.

Lefort is a French diplomat of more than 20 years' experience. He has devoted large parts of his career to the Caucasus and Russia. He served as French Ambassador in Georgia from 2004-2007 and as Deputy Head of Mission at the French Embassy in Russia from 2007-2010. From 2010, he had been the head of Continental Europe General Directorate at the French Foreign Ministry.