AzerNews, Azerbaijan
March 11 2004
US happy with relations with Azerbaijan
On Tuesday, President Ilham Aliyev received Lynn Paskoe, U.S. Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.
Appreciating the high-level cooperation between Azerbaijan and the
United States, Aliyev said, “The large projects implemented in
Azerbaijan and in the region are directly supported by the United
States.
If there had been no support from the United States, it would have
been impossible to realize these projects.” Noting that Azerbaijan is
an ally of the United States in the anti-terror coalition, President
Aliyev said that Azerbaijan itself had been repeatedly exposed to
terrorism.
Stressing the need to solve the most outstanding problems, including
the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Upper Garabagh to achieve
long-term and firm peace in the region, Aliyev expressed his hope
that the United States’ stepping up its efforts as a co-chair of the
OSCE Minsk Group would result in a peaceful resolution of the
conflict soon. Updating the guest on the grave consequences of the
conflict, President Aliyev said that more than one million people had
become refugees and internally displaced persons as a result of the
conflict.
US-Azeri relations
Expressing his adherence to President Aliyev’s opinions on the
Azerbaijani-U.S. high-level cooperation, Paskoe voiced his confidence
that bilateral relations would continue to develop. Underlining that
Azerbaijan is the United States’ close partner in combating
terrorism, the U.S. official said cooperation in this direction would
develop in the future. Highly appreciating the positive changes in
the South Caucasus region, particularly in Azerbaijan, Paskoe noted
that these changes are watched with great interest in Washington and
Europe. Paskoe also stressed that his country intended to cooperate
closely with Azerbaijan’s leadership on political and economic
issues. Reno Harnish, the U.S. Ambassador to Azerbaijan, and his
deputy Nancy McEldowney were also present in the meeting.
From: Baghdasarian