AZERBAIJAN DEEPENING COOPERATION TO JOIN EURO-ATLANTIC STRUCTURES
Interfax News Agency
April 3 2008
Russia
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev says Azerbaijan is deepening cooperation
in its effort to integrate in Euro- Atlantic structures.
Ilham Aliyev spoke at a dinner given by NATO General Secretary Jaap de
Hoop Scheffer for heads of state and governments of the Euro-Atlantic
Partnership Council (EAPC), the Azeri president’s administration
told Interfax.
Aliyev noted Azerbaijan’s economic development and growing role in
the region. Azerbaijan has actively contributed to European energy
security and cooperated in the Caspian-Black Sea region.
Touching upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Aliyev said that, after
Armenia’s occupation of part of Azeri territory and ethnical cleansing,
more than one million Azeris had to abandon their native land.
He said that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict could be resolved only if
the territorial integrity of Azerbaijan was restored.
During the visit to Bucharest, Aliyev also met with Latvian
President Valdis Zatlers and discussed cooperation in integration in
Euro-Atlantic structures and in energy security.