Azerbaijan, UK highlight huge potential to boost cooperation
By Sara Rajabova
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with British Foreign Secretary William Hague on September 3 as part of a working visit to the United Kingdom.
The two ministers exchanged views on issues on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council where Azerbaijan holds a non-permanent seat.
During the meeting, the ministers also held extensive talks on bilateral cooperation and stressed huge potential to broaden the cooperation in the years ahead.
Minister Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan is interested in developing cooperation with the UK in non-energy sectors.
He said that Azerbaijan and the UK continue their energy cooperation successfully and added there are tremendous opportunities to further enhance cooperation across many areas such as investments, tourism and education.
Regarding the ongoing peace process aiming to resolve the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Mammadyarov said that in order to achieve a solution, Armenian armed forces must withdraw from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and work has to begin on drafting a comprehensive peace agreement.
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 sparked a lengthy war in the early 1990s. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal, but they have not been enforced to date.
Secretary Hague praised Azerbaijan's increased role in energy issues and expressed gratitude for the South Caucasus republic's contribution and support to the operations in Afghanistan as well as the cooperation in the framework of NATO.
Hague noted that further enhancement of bilateral relations is in the interest of both countries and added that his country supports the work of the OSCE Minsk Group and stands for peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The British FM also congratulated his Azerbaijani counterpart on Azerbaijan's hosting the inaugural European Games in 2015 and said his country, which successfully hosted 2012 Olympic Games, was ready to share relevant experience with Azerbaijan.
On the same day, the Azerbaijani foreign minister held a meeting with members of the UK's All Party Parliamentary Group on Azerbaijan headed by Chairman Christopher Pincher as well as members of the parliamentary foreign affairs, energy and climate change committees.
During the discussions Mammadyarov briefed the British MPs on the social and economic development priorities of Azerbaijan, the economic achievements of the country made over the past few years, its increasing international standing, as well as the bilateral and multilateral cooperation between Azerbaijan and the UK.
He also spoke about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the peace process aiming to resolve the dispute, and drew the attention to Baku's position on the conflict settlement. He stressed the need for a withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.
Speaking about the economic development of Azerbaijan, Mammadyarov emphasized that the economy, particularly its non-oil sectors, is developing successfully and recent high economic growth dynamics continues in the country.
The minister praised the current state of relations between Azerbaijan and the UK and the important role of energy cooperation in enhancing overall bilateral relations, and noted huge potential to boost cooperation in non-oil sectors of the economy.
On regional projects, Mammadyarov said Azerbaijan is expanding regional cooperation with Turkey and Georgia and called Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project "the next contribution" to the sustainable regional development along with Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan and Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum oil and gas pipeline projects.
He said that along with the relations with neighboring countries, the development of strong cooperation with the European Union is one of Azerbaijan's foreign policy priorities.
In turn, the head of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Azerbaijan and British MPs attending the meeting expressed their satisfaction with hosting Minister Mammadyarov at the UK parliament and thanked him for providing extensive information regarding the above-mentioned issues.
Pincher briefed Mammadyarov about the activity of the All Party Parliamentary Group and its cooperation with the Azerbaijani parliament.
Mammadyarov also answered MPs' questions regarding Azerbaijan, UK-Azerbaijan cooperation as well as the current issues on the agenda of the UN Security Council.
Besides, on the first day of his visit to London, Mammadyarov met at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London with international experts who are interested in Azerbaijan and the region.
During the meeting, Mammadyarov briefed the interlocutors about Azerbaijan's foreign policy priorities and relations with the international community, as well as the Azerbaijan-UK relations and the country's cooperation with the EU and NATO.
Stressing the Azerbaijani energy sector's contribution to the development of the country and the entire region, Mammadyarov noted a large economic potential in the country's non-oil sector.
He pointed out that Azerbaijan, which has made important investment in the development of the non-oil sector over the past years, is interested in expanding its cooperation with neighboring states and the EU.
Speaking about the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov stressed that this conflict is the most serious obstacle to the full use of the region's development potential.
The minister also answered numerous questions of the meeting participants.
The working visit of the Azerbaijani foreign minster to the UK will be wrapped up on September 5.