news.az, Azerbaijan
March 5 2010

‘Allegations of pro-Armenian position of France unfounded’ – envoy
Fri 05 March 2010 | 12:54 GMT Text size:

Gabriel Keller ‘In June 2009 we proposed to the Ministry of Defense of
Azerbaijan to sign an agreement on inter-agency co-operation with our
Ministry of Defense.

A similar proposal was done to Armenia. Azerbaijan has responded just
recently,’ Gabriel Keller the French Ambassador to Azerbaijan said in
an interview with Turan agency.

According to him, this demonstrates the impartiality of France in its
relations with both countries, which gives legitimacy to our position
as the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group.

‘Through this co-chairmanship Ambassador Fassier puts forward
proposals and intentions to reach mutually acceptable solutions, and
it is recognized by the Azerbaijani side. Statements about the
allegedly pro-Armenian position of France in the conflict are not
serious, and I’m still very surprised to read about it in the
Azerbaijani press’.

As for whether the Armenian diaspora influences the foreign policy in
Paris, the ambassador noted the following:

‘There were many citizens of Armenian descent in France, most of them
were born there and integrated into society. long ago. However, the
French foreign policy is determined outside the pressure of any
population group. The French population is the result of successive
waves of migration, particularly over the past hundred years.

And if the Armenian Diaspora had an impact on our foreign policy, we
would have to take into consideration the opinions of Italian, Polish,
Portuguese, Spanish, North African, Chinese and other communities that
are significantly larger than the Armenian one. It would be difficult
to manage.’

ANS PRESS

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress