Mahmud Mammadguliyev attends informal meeting of foreign ministers of Eastern Partnership countries

Baku. 10 July. REPORT.AZ/ Deputy Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan Mahmud Mammadguliyev attended today’s informal meeting of foreign ministers of countries of the EU Eastern Partnership program in Chisinau.

Report informs, besides foreign ministers of the countries of this program, the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighborhood Policy Johannes Khan also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed preparations for the forthcoming Eastern Partnership summit in Brussels in November.

During the press conference dedicated to the session, Mammadguliyev recalled the most important problem of Azerbaijan - the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which resulted in occupation of Azerbaijani lands and 1 million refugees. The deputy minister expressed hope that at the next Eastern Partnership summit a common position will be taken towards all existing conflicts in the member countries of the program.

"Unfortunately, during 25 years of the conflict there is no significant progress, and the status quo is unacceptable, which is also confirmed by the member countries of the OSCE Minsk Group," deputy minister said.

Mammadguliyev recalled that as a result of the conflict, not only military servicemen but civilians are losing their lives. In this regard, he recalled the last week’s death of a 2-year-old girl and her grandmother during shelling from Armenian positions.

"It is time to get involved in serious negotiations to resolve this conflict, we expect that the summit will take this position and will not be selective, as was the case at the previous summit. We hope that the summit will also take into account the positive approach to new negotiations between the EU and Azerbaijan, and we hope that before the summit we will resolve the issue regarding the agreement in aviation," Mammadguliyev said.

Deputy Minister also touched on the projects implemented by Azerbaijan, such as the South Gas Corridor, stressing that this project will benefit not only Azerbaijan, but also Europe.