Azernews.Az

By Nigar Orujova

Azerbaijan is confident that US President Barack Obama's re-election in the November 6 poll will further enhance its relations with the United States.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was one of the first presidents to congratulate his US counterpart.

"Azerbaijan is linked with the United States through relations of friendship and mutually beneficial cooperation in all fields," Aliyev said in his letter.

"I believe that during your next presidency the strategic partnership between Azerbaijan and the United States based on mutual interests and common values would further expand and strengthen, that our countries will continue successful cooperation in the field of international security, economic development and democratic reform."

The Azerbaijani president voiced his country's hope for US efforts in the peaceful resolution of the long-standing conflict with Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh.

"Azerbaijan also has high hopes for the efforts of the United States as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group and personally your efforts to achieve a peaceful and fair solution to the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which has been ongoing for more than 20 years, within the framework of international law," President Aliyev wrote.

Deputy chairman of the ruling Yeni (New) Azerbaijan Party (YAP), Ali Ahmadov, is optimistic about US-Azerbaijani relations after Obama's election for a second term in office.

"Re-electing US President Barack Obama will lead to further strengthening of the relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S.," he said last Thursday.

Relations between Azerbaijan and the U.S. continue developing "in a positive way" and serve the interests of the two countries, Ahmadov told local media.

"We stand for developing these relations," he said. "Azerbaijan takes an active part in ensuring international security and combating terrorism. The interests and policies of Azerbaijan and the U.S. coincide in this regard."

Ahmadov said the U.S. stepped up its efforts on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict under President Obama's leadership last year.

Washington's endeavors to undertake the initiative in the peace process are "observed sometimes", he said.

If the U.S continues supporting resolution of the Karabakh conflict and take "real steps" in this direction, "we can expect a rapid settlement of the conflict", Ahmadov added.

Deputy chair of the Azerbaijani parliament, Bahar Muradova, expects some changes in the US policy in the South Caucasus after the Obama re-election.

"I don't think there will be drastic changes in US policy towards the South Caucasus and Azerbaijan in particular, but I believe these changes will fill the void," she said last weekend.

Muradova is convinced that Azerbaijan, in turn, will take steps to ensure more clarity in bilateral relations.

US Ambassador Richard Morningstar said Azerbaijan will continue to be an extremely important country for the United States.

"I think that certainly with President Barack Obama continuing for the next four years, we will not expect any major changes in the foreign policy," Morningstar told journalists. Azerbaijan will continue to be an extremely important country to the United States and we will continue to work with Azerbaijan on all of the issues that we have been working on."

Voting in Azerbaijan

According to the results of voting by US citizens living in Azerbaijan in the presidential elections, most of them supported incumbent President Barack Obama. 289 voters backed Obama, while 91 cast their ballots for his Republican rival Mitt Romney.

The president, elected at the 57th presidential election on November 6, will be inaugurated on January 20, 2013.

After winning a re-election President Obama promised his thrilled supporters "that for the United States of America the best is yet to come."

He congratulated his opponent and said, "In the weeks ahead I am looking forward to sitting down with Gov. Romney to discuss how we can move this country forward."

"Tonight, you voted for action not politics as usual," he told supporters in Chicago. "You elected us to focus on your job, not ours."

Prior to the president's speech, Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, conceded gracefully in Boston.

"I so wish that I had been able to fulfill your hopes....but the nation chose another leader," Romney told his supporters at his Boston headquarters.

US elections are held in a "winner takes all" when the candidate with a simple majority of votes in the state takes all the electoral votes from that state. In addition, each state has a certain number of electoral votes equal to the number of representatives in Congress -- two senators from each state, and several congressmen, depending on the number of districts.