BAHRAIN BACKS AZERBAIJAN OVER NAGORNO-KARABAKH CONFLICT

AzerTag, Azerbaijan
Dec 21 2006

Safar Abiyev, Defense Minister of Azerbaijan met December 20 with
Defense Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmad
al-Khalifa.

Azerbaijan Minister updated his Bahraini counterpart on the
existing socio-political situation in Azerbaijan and Armenia’s
aggression against Azerbaijan, economic development of the country,
commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline, and
laying of Baku-Tbilisi-Erzerum gas pipeline.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Ahmad Al-Khalifa invited S. Abiyev to pay an
official visit to Bahrain and expressed gratitude to Azerbaijan for
supporting the Kingdom’s stance towards a number of important issues.

"We believe that Azerbaijan will restore its territorial integrity
with the help of Allah. The Kingdom of Bahrain resolutely supports
Azerbaijan in this issue," said Bahraini Minister.

S. Abiyev stressed that Azerbaijan prefers to live at peace with
the neighboring states and tries to find a peaceful solution to
the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. However,
Armenia’s destructive stance impedes settlement of the conflict. If
negotiations fail, we will use all the possible means to liberate
our lands, S. Abiyev said.

According to Azerbaijan Minister, with the economy develping,
Azerbaijan reinforces its the Armed Forces with up-to-date hardware
and ammunition.

Then, the sides shared their views on the military and political
situation in the South Caucasus and the Near East, cooperation of
Azerbaijan with Turkey, USA and NATO.