Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov received the new head of the EU Delegation to Azerbaijan, Ambassador Malena Mård, the foreign ministry said.

During the meeting, the sides characterized the signing of the EU-Azerbaijan agreement on facilitating the issuing of visas as the beginning of a new stage between the two sides in the meeting.

They expressed hope that negotiations on signing of bilateral documents would result successfully.

Mård said the organization, represented by her, sees Azerbaijan as a strategic partner, appreciates the role that Azerbaijan plays in ensuring the energy security of the EU, and is interested in expanding cooperation in various fields.

Speaking about the prospects for cooperation between Azerbaijan and EU, Mammadyarov noted integration into Euro-Atlantic space was one of Azerbaijan's foreign policy priorities.

Mammadyarov added Azerbaijan also attaches importance to its national interests while expanding relations with EU.

Touching the issue on resolving the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the minister said there is a need for fair position of international organizations, particularly the EU on the issue, as well as their real contributions to solution of the dispute.

Mammadyarov said the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a major obstacle to development of the region's countries, as well as, for regional and interregional integration.

European Parliament earlier adopted a resolution which confirmed that Armenian troops have occupied Azerbaijani territories and urged to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions and the L'Aquila statement of the mediating countries' leaders in 2009.

According to changes to the resolution, the European Parliament recalled its position that the occupation of territory of an Eastern Partnership member by another member state violates the fundamental principles and objectives of the EU program.

The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict emerged in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since a lengthy war in the early 1990s that displaced over one million Azerbaijanis, Armenian armed forces have occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions.

The UN Security Council's four resolutions on Armenian withdrawal have not been enforced to this day.

Peace talks, mediated by Russia, France and the U.S. through the OSCE Minsk Group, are underway on the basis of a peace outline proposed by the Minsk Group co-chairs and dubbed the Madrid Principles. The negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.