Azer Tag, Azerbaijan State Info Agency
March 16 2004

CANADA ATTACHES IMPORTANCE TO DEVELOPMENT OF LINKS WITH AZERBAIJAN
[March 16, 2004, 15:39:34]

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Vilayat Guliyev has met
with Director General of Canadian Foreign Ministry’s Bureau on
Southeastern Europe David Preston, Foreign Ministry’s press -service
reported.

During the meeting, Minister Vilayat Guliyev noted that the visit
would be very useful for strengthening friendly relations and
business contacts between Azerbaijan and Canada, and expressed deep
confidence of its positive impact on the perspectives of cooperation
between the two countries. He said he was a supporter of expanding
Canada-Azerbaijan relations in all spheres, and continuation of the
countries’ cooperation in the international organizations.

According Mr. David Preston said the goal of the visit was to
exchange views concerning expansion of the relations between
Azerbaijan and Canada in various spheres, and stressed his country
attached importance to the development of mutually beneficial links
and closer cooperation in the frameworks of the international
organizations.

Foreign Minister Vilayat Guliyev told the guest in detail of the work
carried out for settlement of Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict, hard living conditions of over 1 million of refugees, and
mentioned the importance to intensify efforts by international
community for urgent resolution of the problem on the base of
international law.

Speaking of the processes taking place in Azerbaijan, the Minister
pointed out that despite existing difficulties, the country had
gained progress in the sphere of building civilized and democratic
society. Touching upon the successful construction of the
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, he noted that Azerbaijan is a
regional leader in the sphere of economic development.

As of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, Mr.
Preston expressed hope that the problem would be peacefully settled
soon due to joint efforts of the international community.

The parties have also discussed a number of other issues of mutual
interest.