Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
June 13 2008

Relations Between Azerbaijan and Russia Expanding
13.06.08 10:55

Azerbaijan, Baku, 12 June / corr. TrendNews I. Alizade/ The official
Baku believes that the visit of the Russian President Dmitri Medvedev
to Azerbaijan will provide conditions for further development of the
relations between the two countries. `One of the fundamental
orientations of Azerbaijan’s foreign policy is to establish the closed
corporation with the neighboring countries. Azerbaijan attaches great
importance to its relations with Russia,’ Novruz Mammadov, head of the
international relations department of the Presidential Administration
of Azerbaijan said to TrendNews on 12 June.

The newly-elected Russian president Dmitri Medvedev will pay his first
official visit to Azerbaijan on 3 to 4 July. The visit will take place
at an invitation of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

`The visit of Dmirti Medvedev shows that Azerbaijan is one of the four
or five priority countries for Russia,’ Mammadov said.

According to Novruzov, Azerbaijan wants only one thing from
Russia. `We believe that if Russia expresses its will on the
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, it would be fair and
right. The position of Russia on the settlement of this conflict is of
great significance. If Russia takes more fair and concrete position in
this regard, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be solved soon,’ Mammadov
said.

The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in
1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan
lost the Nagorno-Karabakh, except of Shusha and Khojali, in December
1991. In 1992-93, Armenian Armed Forces occupied Shusha, Khojali and
Nagorno-Karabakh’s seven surrounding regions. In 1994, Azerbaijan and
Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active
hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia,
France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress