BAKU: Cooperation of Azerbaijan with NATO was highly assessed

TREND, Azerbaijan
July 8 2007

Cooperation of Azerbaijan with NATO was highly assessed

Source: Trend
Author: R.Abdullayev

08.07.2006

On July 7, the two-day international seminar of NATO "Implementation
of Partner Action Plan against terrorism (PAP-T): participation
and contribution of partner-countries to operations of NATO against
terrorism" was completed in Baku. The meeting brought together 50
representatives from 32 countries around the world, Trend reports
with reference to the public relations center of the National Security
Ministry of Azerbaijan.

The minister of national security of Azerbaijan lieutenant-general
Eldar Mahmudov delivered a speech at the conference, noting that the
effective cooperation between NATO and Azerbaijan has been continuing
for more than 12 years. Besides, he pointed out that the appearance
of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev at the final session of NATO
Parliamentary Assembly is the indicator of the strengthening and
expansion of the cooperation of sides.

Mahmudov highly assessed the Individual Cooperation Action Plan of
Azerbaijan and NATO, which was confirmed according to the order of
Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev dated August 3, 2005. Irrespective
of the continuation of the aggression by Armenian side against
Azerbaijan, social-economic development allows to strengthen the
role of official Baku in the regional and international arena. All
these permitted to strengthen the position of Baku in the settlement
of Armenian-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Armenia should
understand the real situation, told Mahmudov.

The deputy prime minister of Azerbaijan Ali Hasanov greeted the
participants of the seminar on behalf of the Cabinet of Ministers of
Azerbaijan Republic.

The representatives of NATO highly assessed the efforts of Azerbaijan
in organizing the seminar. It was stated that Azerbaijan is an
active participant of the antiterrorism coalition, and the position
of official Baku in this process was highly assessed.

On the second day of the seminar, a video-conference with Headquarter
of the North-Atlantic Alliance was held. During the video-conference,
the NATO secretary general assistant on defense planning John
Chalstone expressed his gratitude to Azerbaijan for highly conducting
the seminar.