Joint Press Conference of Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov and Foreign Minister of the Republic of Türkiye, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Ladies and gentlemen!
As you probably know, according to the traditions, the first ever visit of President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan and Türkiye should be paid to either Baku or Ankara. As usual, I am very glad to welcome Mr. Çavuşoğlu in Baku. As you may know, Mr. Çavuşoğlu has been received by the President of Azerbaijan, H.E. Mr Ilham Aliyev. Mr. Çavuşoğlu had also meetings with the Prime Minister, Mr. Artur Rasi-zade and Speaker of Parliament, Mr. Ogtay Asadov.
We discussed a number of issues of mutual interest with my counterpart at one-by-one and multilateral meetings. Firstly, I briefly informed Mr. Minister about the current status of negotiation process over Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. As you probably know, Foreign Minister of Russia, Mr. Sergey Lavrov, visited Baku and Yerevan in the previous months. Minister Lavrov put forward certain proposal in order to give an impetus to the negotiation process. The proposal was presented on behalf of the Minsk Group Co-chairs. Presence of military forces of Armenia in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan by Armenia has been and remains a major hurdle in the process. It is also main obstacle for security, social welfare and development of economy in the region. As an outcome of the last visit by Co-chairs, holding the meeting of Presidents was proposed. Azerbaijan positively responded to the proposal. The meeting to be likely held in coming month; till the end of the year. Co-chairs are working on arrangement of the meeting right now.
Furthermore, we exchanged views on mutually beneficial cooperation in the field of energy. Azerbaijan and Türkiye share the same position on this issue. TANAP project is being implemented in a timely manner. Yesterday, within the meeting with my Georgian counterpart in Tbilisi we agreed on holding trilateral meeting till the end of the year and Mr. Çavuşoğlu also supported the idea. Probably, the meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Türkiye will be held in Georgia till the end of the year. We plan to visit the sector of Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in Georgian territory after meeting. We do believe that this project of high importance will be completed by the beginning of the next year. Mr. Çavuşoğlu informed me that Türkiye is planning to deliver its part of railway project till the beginning of the next year. I am pretty much sure that the implementation of railway project will give a new turn to the advanced relationship between our countries.
Thank you.
The full video of the joint press conference can be obtained from the following link
