Azernews.Az

Azerbaijani Defense Minister Safar Abiyev did not attend an event on the current situation in Kosovo held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels on June 12-13.
The refusal was due to the altered political situation in the Balkans after the declaration of independence by Kosovo, which had caused Azerbaijan's discontent and prompted it to pull out its peacekeeping contingent from the Serbian province, the Defense Ministry said.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on February 17. The Azerbaijani government criticized the move, saying it did not recognize the province as an independent state.
34 Azerbaijani servicemen had served as part of the Turkish contingent in Kosovo since 1999. The peacekeepers were patrolling 18 villages in the Dragas region.
The NATO event was attended by the defense chiefs of the alliance's member states and partners.
Kosovo is administered by the KFOR peacekeeping force of the UN and NATO.
NATO-Azerbaijan relations began after the South Caucasus republic joined in 1992 the North-Atlantic Cooperation Council, which was renamed in 1997 into the North-Atlantic Partnership Council.