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The United States, Azerbaijan and Turkey could forge trilateral strategic partnership, a top State Department official said Tuesday as representatives of the three countries gathered in Washington for talks on multi-faceted cooperation.
The proposal by US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried was made at an international conference focusing on the importance of the relations among Washington, Baku and Ankara for Eurasia.
Fried made it clear that the plan was not aimed against the rival superpower Russia, saying the initiative would not undermine Moscow's clout in the South Caucasus.
"We have no intention to counter Russian interests in the region. This would be unwise and impossible…This partnership would benefit everyone, and the region as a whole," Fried said.
The conference participants comprehensively discussed issues concerning cooperation in a variety of fields, including geo-politics, economics and trade. Other speakers included US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza, Turkish former Foreign Minister Hikmet Chetin and former Azerbaijani Ambassador to the United States Hafiz Pashayev.
A delegation led by Vice-Speaker Valeh Alasgarov represents Azerbaijan at the event. It also includes chairman of the parliamentary commission on international and inter-parliamentary relations Samad Seyidov and MP Asim Mollazada.
During the visit to the U.S., meetings will be held among representatives of Azerbaijani, Turkish and Jewish Diaspora organizations to exchange views on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict, baseless "Armenian genocide" claims against Turkey and other issues.

'Alternate pipelines'
The gas reserves Azerbaijan possesses will suffice to build alternate pipelines to link southern and central Europe with the Caspian region through Turkey, the US assistant secretary Fried told the conference.
In an apparent swipe at Russia, a key energy supplier to energy-hungry European markets, Fried said Washington was striving to eliminate the monopoly on gas supplies to Europe.
The U.S. believes that Azerbaijan could play a crucial role in diminishing Moscow's clout and sees the resource-rich South Caucasus republic as a major exporter of gas. "From this standpoint, Azerbaijan is a country of strategic importance," Fried said.
He said alternate pipeline routes linking the Caspian and Central Asia regions with Europe would allow US allies on the continent to end their dependence on a single source of supplies. The transportation of Azeri gas to Europe would also save regional states from what he termed as "a closed investment climate".
Azerbaijan has joined the NABUCCO project that envisions building a 3,300 km-long pipeline under the Caspian Sea to ship gas to world markets by 2011. The pipeline will eventually go through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Austria to take Caspian and Central Asian gas to Europe. The pipe's annual throughput capacity is estimated at up to 31 billion cubic meters.
The project will bring Azerbaijan considerable transit revenues. The United States and European countries are also seeking exports of gas from across the Caspian Sea - Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan - through the conduit.