”The Riga Summit aims at maintaining and reviewing the current state of cooperation of the European Union with Eastern Partnership countries, and Azerbaijan has its own position on cooperation with EU”, deputy head of the Presidential Administration, chief of foreign relations department Novruz Mammadov has told journalists.
‘We expressed our dissatisfaction with the final declaration of the forum because it does not reflect the nature of cooperation between Azerbaijan and EU. Azerbaijan is a country in the post-Soviet space which maintains comprehensive and successful cooperation with EU. But the provisions of the document related to Azerbaijan do not correspond to the spirit of this cooperation”, Mr. Mammadov said.
He also expressed dissatisfaction with EU’s approach to the solution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The deputy head of the Presidential Administration said: “We openly convey all these facts to the leaders of EU, delegations of the countries attending the Summit. There was a lot of tension in this regard. We agree with the general declaration, expressing our special position, which we will lay out in a written format.”
Mr. Mammadov also noted that Azerbaijan closely cooperates with EU in the fields of energy, political reforms and fight against terrorism. ”The Azerbaijani President has repeatedly said that our relations with the European Union should be the relations of strategic partnership. We want to build our relations in this format. If EU does not take into account our proposals and remarks, we will express our position on this cooperation in the future”, said Mr Mammadov.
Kaynak: Azertac
