Elmar Mammadyarov: Ladies and gentlemen! As you know, Margot Wallström, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Sweden is on a working visit in Azerbaijan. We had a tete-a-tete meeting, as well as a meeting with participation of the delegations and discussed wide range of issues. The political relations between Azerbaijan and Sweden are at the very high level. The Republic of Azerbaijan has the Embassy in Stockholm. Sweden has opened its diplomatic mission in Azerbaijan. Although, the Ambassador of Sweden to Azerbaijan resides in Stockholm and the Embassy has been represented by Charge d’affairs, we expect that Ambassador will be resided in Azerbaijan soon. I wish the Government of Sweden will take a decision about her residency in Azerbaijan.

We signed a very important document - “the Convention between the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Government of the Kingdom of Sweden for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income” with Mrs. Minister. It is a very important document in terms of economic and legal significance. Although, several Swedish companies are operating in Azerbaijan, this document will create good opportunity for all Swedish companies to invest in Azerbaijan.

I informed Mrs. Minister about the position of Azerbaijan on Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The position of Azerbaijan on this conflict is fair. UN Security Council adopted four resolutions on the conflict. Sweden is willing to be elected as the non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. The elections are set to be held in New-York soon. I believe that if Sweden is elected as the non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, she will make its contribution to the implementation of those resolutions.

Afterwards, we discussed the humanitarian issues. Mrs. Minister is much interested in women and family affairs. I expressed my support to her in this issue. 48 percent of the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan consists of women. This figure is lower than that in Sweden, but can be considered a good result for Azerbaijan. Mrs. Minister had a good proposal – engagement of women to the resolution of the conflict, increasing their role in this process and also the process of holding meetings between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan. We have always supported this proposal. We consider that the more the meetings are organized between the Azerbaijani and Armenian communities of Nagorno-Karabakh region of Azerbaijan, the more it could help to the process of the resolution of the conflict and our refugees and IDPs which are driven out from their native lands could return back to those lands. Therefore, we are fully supporting this proposal.

It should be noted that Azerbaijan has already presented the strategic cooperation agreement project with the European Union to Commission. I express my gratitude to Sweden for its support to start the negotiations on this issue.

We also discussed the visa issue. We are trying to simplify the visa procedures for all kind of passports with the EU countries. We wish all our citizens could travel to the European countries with no restrictions..

Q&A session:

Question: First, I have a question for Mrs. Minister. Sweden is the member of the Minsk Group of OSCE. What kind of steps could it take for the resolution of the conflict? My question to Mr. Minister is as following: at which level is Azerbaijan going to be represented in the Munich Security Conference? My second question is that some days ago an American Congressman Adam Shift noted the significant role of Victoria Nuland, the official of the US State Department in the non-adoption of the document on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in PACE. How is the Azerbaijani side’s attitude toward this issue?

Elmar Mammadyarov: Thank you! Mrs. Minister herself addressed me a question about the possible role of Sweden in the resolution process of the conflict. We had a discussion. We discussed the proposal of organizing the joint conference not only with the co-chair countries, but also all Minsk Group member countries. Sweden is the member of the Minsk Group. Once experienced Swedish diplomat named Jan Eliasson tackled this issue, made a deep research of the conflict, paid a number of visits to the region and tried to contribute to the resolution process of the conflict. We also discussed the proposal of increasing the role of women as the public representatives in the resolution process of the conflict. Azerbaijani side supports both proposals. For the participation in the Munich Security Conference, Azerbaijan is to be represented at the presidential level. Mr. President will deliver a speech in the panel on energy issues in the conference. Regarding the second question, I would like to note that firstly this question has to be addressed to Mrs. Nuland and Congressman Shift. Second, we have already instructed our Embassy in Washington to investigate thoroughly this issue. As soon as we get information, our press secretary will comment on that.

Question: My first question is for Mrs. Minister. Poland declared that “the Eastern Partnership” initiative has been failed. Sweden is one of the initiators of “the Eastern Partnership” program. How do you think about that? Also the European Union has not demonstrated a firm position only on Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict yet, unlike the conflicts in other post-soviet countries, such as Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova? How is your attitude toward that? Minister Mammadyarov, my question for you is: the Minsk Group demonstrated lopsided position regarding the resolution in PACE. How do you see the resolution of the conflict with the mandate of the Minsk Group after this and are there any plans to have a high-level meeting?

Elmar Mammadyarov: My answer for this question will be very brief. There are no plans to have a meeting with the Minsk Group co-chairs yet.

Thank you!

The full video of the joint press conference can be obtained from the following link