Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Azerbaijan doesn’t rule out the involvement of other institutions in the settlement process of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict alongside the OSCE Minsk Group.

Azerbaijan`s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov made the remark as he met Chairman of the German-Azerbaijani Forum, Hanns-Eberhard Schleyer and Deputy Minister of Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region on the economy, energy, industry, medium-sized businesses and art, Gunther Horsetski.

Khalafov said the German delegation`s visit would positively influence further development of cooperation, discussing relations as well, Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry reported.

He said the activity of OSCE Minsk Group yielded no results stressing the necessity of involvement of other political mechanisms.

Khalafov emphasized the possibility of using potential of European Institutions and Germany in this regard.

For over two decades, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been locked in conflict which emerged over Armenia's territorial claims against its South Caucasus neighbor. Since a war in the early 1990s, Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan's territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven surrounding regions.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place since 1994, but long-standing efforts by U.S, Russian and French mediators have been largely fruitless so far.

Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on its pullout from the neighboring country's territories.

Schleyer, for his part, said their activity directions included to contribute to further development of Azerbaijani-German ties and to promote Azerbaijan`s achievements in German society.

Regarding the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Schleyer noted that Germany would chair the OSCE for upcoming year and stressed the possibility of new initiatives for achieving the progress in solving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Horsetski, in turn, said they were interested in trade-economic cooperation with Azerbaijan, as well as involvement of the country`s investment to the projects carried out in North Rhine-Westphalia region.

Khalafov further stressed the significance of development of cooperation with the regions of Germany.

Diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Germany were established in February 1992. The economic relations between the two countries are developing successfully. To date, 67 documents have been signed between Azerbaijan and Germany in various fields.

Currently, 157 companies with German capital operate in Azerbaijan and the two countries intend to continue the development in this direction.

The German companies are operating in Azerbaijan's commercial, construction, industrial, banking, insurance, agriculture, as well as service sectors.

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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SaraRajabova

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