Azeri official warns against attempts to confine NATO ties to Karabakh issue

Trend news agency
14 Jun 04

Baku, 14 June: Azerbaijan should not confine its relations with NATO
only to the conflict with Armenia, Trend quoted Deputy Foreign Minister
Araz Azimov as telling journalists today.

“Any restriction would be wrong because Azerbaijan’s relations
with NATO are more significant and strategically important than
that. I don’t think we can afford to sacrifice these ties for mere
speculation,” Azimov said.

Armenian Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan said recently that there
were no apparent problems with the participation of Armenian officers
in the NATO Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises due to be held in
Azerbaijan. Moreover, he said that even the date has been set when
the Armenian officers can receive entry visas at the Azerbaijani
consulate in Tbilisi.

The multinational exercises Cooperative Best Effort-2004 will be held
within the Partnership for Peace programme in Baku in September. The
Azerbaijani Defence Ministry is not against the Armenian presence but
a number of public organizations intend to prevent this from happening.