AZERI, GERMAN FOREIGN MINISTERS DISCUSS ENERGY COOPERATION, KARABAKH

ANS TV, Baku
19 Feb 07

[Presenter] German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is
presiding over the EU, has already started official meetings in Baku.

[Passage omitted: the minister visited late President Heydar Aliyev’s
grave]

The German minister first had a one-to-one meeting with his
Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov and then an expanded
meeting with delegations in attendance. Azerbaijani-EU relations,
the implementation of the Action Plan within the framework of the
[EU] Neighbourhood Policy, the Nagornyy Karabakh and energy issues
were discussed during the meeting.

Afterwards, the ministers held a news conference.

[Mammadyarov speaking at the news conference] During the
meeting, we touched upon both regional problems and future
Azerbaijani-EU cooperation within the framework of the Neighbourhood
Policy. Certainly, we also discussed the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagornyy
Karabakh conflict. For my part, I told the German foreign minister
about Azerbaijan’s position [on the conflict].

>>From an economic point of view, we, certainly, discussed energy
issues, while from a humanitarian point of view we discussed conceptual
issues concerning the Year of Azerbaijani culture to be held in
Germany in 2008, and we are now working on the programme.

[Passage omitted: the German minister to meet President Ilham Aliyev
and head of the State Oil Company of the Azerbaijani Republic]

[Presenter] The aim of the visit is to discuss Azerbaijan’s integration
into the EU and energy cooperation. A report from the embassy of
Germany, which is presiding over the EU, says that Germany sees
intensifying the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policy as the
main trend in its activity and attaches great importance to cooperation
to this effect with Azerbaijan.