Today.Az, Azerbaijan
May 27 2008
Swiss ambassador to Azerbaijan: "Forced way of the Karabakh conflict
resolution will not lead to protracted peace"
27 May 2008 [11:41] – Today.Az
Day.Az interview with Swiss ambassador to Azerbaijan Alan Guidetti.
– What do you expect from the further development of Azerbaijani-Swiss
relations following the first, I would say, historical visit of Swiss
President to Azerbaijan?
– Yes, this was the first visit of the Swiss President to Azerbaijan
and he laid foundation for the further, more active development of the
bilateral relations. As you know, the Swiss embassy has recently
opened in Baku and Azerbaijan opened its embassy in Bern a little bit
earlier. This fact promotes development of our relations in various
spheres, from communications to energy and culture. The list of
spheres, in which mutual cooperation is mutually profitable, is and
extremely wide.
Switzerland participates in the economic sector of Azerbaijan, there
are opportunities for expanding cooperation in energy sector, Swiss
companies are especially interests in purchasing of Azerbaijani gas.
– You have once said that Azerbaijan may use its economic potential
for the resolution of the Karabakh conflict.
– For sure Azerbaijan can develop comprehensively by using its oil
strategy, which may be attractive for all partners and in a wider
sense used for the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict.
– How will the world society, especially Switzerland, react in case
Azerbaijan uses forced way of the conflict resolution?
– In this case I can only speak for my country. Switzerland has always
spoken for the peaceful resolution of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. My
country considers that the forced resolution of any conflicts in the
world, including Nagorno Karabakh, may never lead to conclusive
peace. It is true that the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict, which
started over 15 years ago, has not been settled yet. The military
phase of the conflict has evidenced that the peaceful resolution has
no alternatives. This is the main principle of the external political
course of Switzerland on such problems.
Moreover, we see that the potential of the problem resolution by way
of talks has not been exhausted yet and there are chances for
attaining positive result.
– Some experts state that without Nagorno Karabakh Azerbaijan could
have been the second Switzerland in its region in the sense of
economic and political stability. What would you say to it?
– I agree that Azerbaijan experiences fantastic economic growrth rates
and has brilliant prospects for further development. But we can not
judge whether Azerbaijan could have been the second Switzerland,
though some common features are observed in this comparison. Anyway,
Azerbaijan has strongest potential for strengthening of its economic
development and these prospects could have been wider in case of the
resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh problem.
/Day.Az/
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