Azerbaijan cannot engage in trade of rough diamonds because the country is not yet a participant in the Kimberley Process, Ilgar Hasanov, Advisor to the Chairman of the State Agency for Antimonopoly Supervision and Consumer Market Control, at a meeting of the Milli Majlis Committee on Economic Policy, Industry, and Entrepreneurship.
He noted that the Kimberley Process was established in the late 1990s as an international response to the illegal trade of so-called "conflict" (or "blood") rough diamonds, the revenues from which were used to finance armed conflicts, including in Sierra Leone, Angola, and Congo. Hasanov pointed out that the process currently unites 86 countries.
Hasanov emphasized that one of the key requirements of the Kimberley Process is a ban on diamond trade with countries that are not part of the system. "Since our country is not a participant in the Kimberley Process, diamond trade is impossible," he said, adding that the mechanism is based on three principles: certification, traceability, and reporting.
On February 25 last year, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed an order on measures for the country's accession to the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme.