Belarus, Azerbaijan sign military cooperation agreement

Belapan news agency
16 Dec 04

Minsk, 16 December: An intergovernmental agreement between Belarus
and Azerbaijan on military and military-technical cooperation was
signed in Baku on 15 December in the course of a two-day visit to that
country by a Belarusian military delegation led by Defence Minister
Col-Gen Leanid Maltsaw, foreign news agencies reported.

The document was signed by Maltsaw and Azeri Defence Minister Col-Gen
Safar Abiyev.

[Passage omitted: Abiyev briefed Maltsaw on Azerbaijan’s stance on
the conflict with Armenia.]

The Belarusian defence minister said that Belarus is ready for
cooperation with Azerbaijan in all areas, including the defence
sector, based on the two countries’ mutual interests. Speaking about
the settlement of the Armenian-Azeri conflict in Nagornyy Karabakh,
Maltsaw said that his country stands for the settlement of this
problem on the basis of international law.

[Passage omitted: Maltsaw had talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham
Aliyev see report by Turan news agency, Baku, in Russian 1719 gmt 15
Dec 04.]

The reaction of Armenia – Belarus’s partner in the Collective Security
Treaty Organization – to the stepping-up of Belarusian-Azerbaijani
contacts in the defence sector is not yet known.