Baku hosts 1st trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Turkmen and Turkish FMs
By Aynur Jafarova
Azerbaijan's capital Baku hosted the first trilateral meeting of the Azerbaijani, Turkmen and Turkish foreign ministers.
The meeting was focused on a wide range of issues, including the economic relations, energy projects, and cooperation within international organizations.
The meeting saw Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan, Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey and Rashid Meredov of Turkmenistan to sign Baku Declaration.
The meeting was followed by a joint press conference. In his speech, Mammadyarov said the cooperation among the three countries will cover a wide range of issues, including energy industry, tourism, humanitarian spheres and politics.
He noted Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan also plan to create a separate format of meetings between ministers responsible for the mentioned areas.
Meredov, in turn, said cooperation among Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Turkey will play an important role to connect Asia and Europe together.
"The talks were held at a high level," he said. "The sides discussed relevant issues of bilateral and trilateral relations."
Meanwhile, important issues for future cooperation were
discussed during the trilateral meeting.
"Special attention was paid to the cooperation in the energy
sector, Meredov said. "Other topics of the talks were regional
security issues."
In his remarks, Davutoglu said the ties between Azerbaijan, Turkey
and Turkmenistan have always been at a high level, "and we decided
to expand them further."
He said Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Turkey are very close
historically, and the peoples of these countries share common
roots, language and religion.
Davutoglu went on to add that it was decided to hold the trilateral
meetings twice a year, and this indicates the importance attached
to this cooperation by all participating parties.
The minister also said Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan intend
to develop cooperation with other countries as well.
He stressed the main goal of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan is
to ensure the security in the region, adding that the three
countries have set a goal to become regional leaders.
The foreign ministers of the three countries also held bilateral meetings and Meredov and Davutoglu were received by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
This is the first meeting held in such format. The next one will be held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Experts believe the establishment of a tripartite relationship between Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan will be beneficial to all the three states.
The three mentioned countries decided to establish the Turkey-Azerbaijan-Turkmenistan tripartite format in late 2013. Azerbaijan is also a member of two tripartite formats: Azerbaijan-Turkey-Georgia and Azerbaijan-Turkey-Iran.