Chinese official upbeat on military cooperation with Azerbaijan

Ekspress, Baku
21 Aug 04

Text of Alakbar Raufoglu’s report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress on
21 August headlined “Our military students will be trained in China”
and subheaded “Chinese Gen Qian Lihua: ‘As far as I know, conflicts
are usually settled militarily'”

“The Chinese government hopes that Azerbaijan and Armenia will not
miss chances for peace in settling the Karabakh conflict,” Deputy
Director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Chinese National Defence
Ministry Qian Lihua told Ekspress newspaper yesterday. China is ready
to help settle the conflict at any level, but on condition that
“discussions are directed towards peace”.

“As far as I know, conflicts are usually settled militarily. But I
hope that this option will not be applied to the Karabakh issue,” he
said. Lihua added: “First of all, the sides themselves must believe in
the need for a speedy settlement to this conflict. There is no other
way out. If the Karabakh issue is not settled, one cannot talk about
lasting stability and cooperation in the South Caucasus.”

Lihua said that China had an interest in expanding military
cooperation with Azerbaijan. He said that there were prospects for
this, “but no efforts”.

Azerbaijani Defence Minister Safar Abiyev met a Chinese delegation led
by Lihua yesterday. The Chinese ambassador to Azerbaijan, Zhang Xiyun,
attended the meeting as well.

“We had successful discussions. We mostly talked about the expansion
of military cooperation,” Lihua said after the meeting. At the
meeting, the sides reached an important agreement on developing ties
in the sphere of security and “discussions of this type make it
possible to develop allied relations in the future as well”.

Lihua yesterday visited the training centre of the Internal Troops. At
a meeting with the centre’s leadership the sides signed a relevant
agreement on the education of Azerbaijani military students in China.