Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan and Colombia enjoy good relations, Columbian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin who is on a one-day official visit to Azerbaijan told journalists after a meeting with her Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov in Baku on July 8.

She stressed that the main objectives of her visit to Baku are to discuss the issues of strengthening the relations between the two countries, to determine the areas of cooperation, to attract the investors in the oil sector of Colombia and other issues.

Colombian Foreign Minister stressed her country's desire to become closer to Azerbaijan.

According to Holguin, an agreement was reached to hold a forum of businessmen from the two countries.

"Azerbaijan has the know-how in the field of energy. We believe that the cooperation in this area could be beneficial to both countries," she said.

Holguin added that economics may become another interesting area of cooperation between the two countries.

The Minister also informed about Columbia's intention to cooperate with GUAM.

Earlier Holguin said that Colombia supports the position of Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"We hope that Azerbaijan will soon achieve restoration of its territorial integrity," she said.

According to Holguin, the main objectives of her visit to Baku are to discuss the issues related to the strengthening of relations between the two countries, to identify areas of cooperation as well as to attract investors in the oil sector of Colombia.

Furthermore, Holguin expressed her country's desire to become closer to Azerbaijan.

Recall that Colombia became the second Latin American country after Mexico, whose parliament recognized Khojaly event as genocide.

In April 2012, the Colombian Senate has passed a decision on Armenian occupation of Azerbaijani territories and recognized the crimes committed by Armenians in Khojaly in 1992 during the Karabakh war as genocide.

The decision was taken unanimously after 102 votes required for its adoption were successfully collected.

A supplement to the decision has information about the history of the policy of aggression against Azerbaijan, as well as about the Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the seven surrounding regions occupied by Armenia as well as about one million refugees and internally displaced persons, violence against the Azerbaijani population and human rights violations.

Armenia occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, after laying territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor that had caused a lengthy war in the early 1990s. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia's withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.