Norwegian minister hails Azerbaijan’s stance on European commitments
Trend news agency
14 Oct 04
Baku, 13 October: Azerbaijan is honouring its commitments to the
Council of Europe, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev told the visiting
Norwegian foreign minister and the chairman of the Council of Europe
Committee of Ministers, Jan Petersen, on 13 October, Trend reports.
“We are doing it not only because we have assumed the commitments
to your organization. This first of all confirms the policy towards
democratizing our society,” Aliyev said.
Speaking about Armenia’s aggression against Azerbaijan, Aliyev
repeated that Azerbaijan’s position on the issue is in keeping with
international legal norms and principles. Touching on the discussion
of the issue by the Council of Europe, including by the Parliamentary
Assembly, the president said Azerbaijan had always supported any
discussions on the issue because it’s position was fair.
“When our country initiated the appointment of a Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe [PACE] rapporteur for the Armenian-Azerbaijani
Nagornyy-Karabakh conflict, as always Armenia opposed that, which
clearly shows that it is not interested in informing the international
community of the essence of the conflict,” he added.
Jan Petersen said that while in Baku he had held very productive
meetings and added that the visit was of great importance from the
standpoint of cooperati on between both Azerbaijan and Norway and
between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe.
Pointing to the successful development of Azerbaijani-Norwegian
relations, Petersen said it was particularly commendable in the
economic sphere. Giving a positive assessment of the work of the
Norwegian company Statoil in Azerbaijan, the minister expressed
confidence that bilateral economic cooperation would expand not only
in the oil and gas but in other sectors as well.
Touching on Azerbaijan’s relations with the Council of Europe,
Petersen said Azerbaijan was treating its commitments to the Council
of Europe not only as obligations but also as a way of furthering the
country’s democratic development. The visitor praised Azerbaijan for
such an attitude and added that the development of such cooperation
was equally important to Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe.