ALIYEV’S VISIT IN US MEDIA SPOTLIGHT
Assa-Irada, Azerbaijan
April 26 2006
Baku, April 25, AssA-Irada
President Ilham Aliyev started his first official visit to the United
States on Tuesday.
Aliyev will hold a meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations on
Wednesday. On the following day, the president will open the sixth
business and investment conference of the US-Azeri Chamber of Commerce,
a source from the US embassy in Washington has said. The event will
be joined by high-ranking officials of the Azerbaijani government
and senior US politicians and analysts.
On Friday, President Aliyev will meet US counterpart George Bush
at the White House. Meetings have also been scheduled with US Vice
President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The White House press service has said the two presidents will
discuss regional security, energy cooperation and democratic
development. Documents pertaining to economic and political cooperation
between the two countries will be signed during the visit.
The visit is in US media spotlight because Washington sees Azerbaijan
as its key regional ally and reliable partner. Observers believe that
the visit is an indication of the ever-strengthening cooperation
between Baku and Washington. Some maintain that the visit should
be looked upon from the angle of US-Iranian stand-off over Tehran’s
nuclear program.
An article in the Washington Post on Tuesday said President Aliyev had
succeeded in getting everything he wanted from the Bush administration,
as the US is now considering providing Azerbaijan with some sort
of assistance.
The Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh will
also be high on the visit agenda. Washington wants to see Azerbaijan
a prospering and democratically developing country. The visit is
also taking place at a time when crude price in world markets is on
the rise.
The United States, which cooperates with oil-rich Azerbaijan, supports
the multi-billion dollar Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan main export pipeline to
take Azeri oil to international markets.