Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs!

As you probably know, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Republic of Serbia, as well as OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Mr. Ivica Dacic is paying a visit to Azerbaijan. Today, Mr. Dacic has been received by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, H.E Mr. Ilham Aliyev.
We met with my counterpart in private and multilateral framework. Though Mr.Dacic is visiting Azerbaijan as an OSCE Chairman-in-Office, the visit allowed us to discuss bilateral strategic partnership issues between Azerbaijan and Serbia. Relations between two countries on the sphere of economy, political and humanitarian fields are in the highest level and during the meeting we exchanged views on energy, transportation, and visa related issues. Regarding the visa related- issue, Mr. Dacic put forward a very interesting proposal. He proposed to apply visa-free regime for the citizens of the Republic of Azerbaijan visiting Serbia. For sure, the issue will be considered through current internal procedures.

Regarding the discussion with Mr.Dacic in his capacity of OSCE Chairman-in-Office, we touched upon several issues of interests; mainly we had discussion towards Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Also I asked Mr.Dacic to raise and discuss the issue of release of Azerbaijani hostages with the officials of Armenia within his visit to Yerevan.
We put on the table several proposals on the conflict resolution. As you probably know, we are in favor of starting negotiations on Peace Agreement and as Co-chairs proposed, on establishment of certain working groups as soon as humanly possible. Azerbaijan stands ready for cooperation on this issue and we do expect that the visit of Mr.Dacic to Yerevan will give an impulse to achieve progress. Thank you!

Q&A session

Question: Your Excellences’, the question is for both of you. Serbia has a lot of experience in difficult negotiations and Serbia has a very good bilateral cooperation with Azerbaijan. To what extend do you expect that these two circumstances will assist Serbia in offering through the Chairmanship?

Elmar Mammadyarov: First of all, of course, as it was just sounded by Minister Dacic, Azerbaijan is standing in the same line with Serbia on the principle of territorial integrity and we believe that what was mentioned even if anyone reads Helsinki Final Act, including the principles as they shrined thereof, principle of territorial integrity is higher than principle of self-determination. Self-determination-it means that within the agreement and the consent of the capital, self-right of the people living there. But it doesn’t mean absolutely there should be violation of territorial integrity, unless the country agrees itself that this principle will be adequately introduced. With regard of our experience what we expect from Serbia, first and utmost what I mentioned in my advance statement, we believe that Serbia got pretty good office with regard of people-to-people contacts. We introduce the idea that why wouldn’t under the patronage or chairmanship of Serbia we can establish people-to-people contact, for example, Armenian and Azerbaijani communities of Nagorno-Karabakh region of the Republic of Azerbaijan, or exchanging of data on missing persons which is very noble and very humanitarian. Because one day conflict will be resolved, but who lost their members of family should definitely know what happened to them through the hot period of war. We advise that why wouldn’t we looking for the different working groups, including involvement of different institutions, like UNHDR and UNDP to see that whenever we achieve the stage when Armenia withdraws its troops from the occupied territories, at least we will have in full preparation for those who decide to return back to their place of origin and they will have at least a plan for that. I think that Serbia got a very good experience in this case, besides that it is now being in Chairmanship and putting that kind of noble proposals. I think that it would be useful for bringing peace and stability, particular to the South Caucasus and particular to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Question: Minister, within your last visit to Russia, during the meeting with the Foreign Minister of Russia, Mr.Sergei Lavrov, it was underlined that settlement of the conflict is ripe. What is the positive opportunity in this regard? My second question is about the hostages, what are being done for return of hostages?

Elmar Mammadyarov: Regarding the second question, I have already mentioned that, I asked Mr. Dacic to raise the issue and discuss with officials of Armenia. I do believe that Mr.Dacic’s visit to Yerevan will pave the way for solution of the issue.
We touched this issue at the joint press conference with Mr. Lavrov, needless to say, it is the time for the settlement of conflict. Positive aspect of this approach is that, all parties involved to the conflict resolution process, Co-chairs, intend to achieve a breakthrough in the negotiation process. Turning the positivity to the reality is another subject to discuss. We agreed with Mr. Lavrov on continuation of the discussions on these issues within Minsk Group.