Elmar Mammadyarov: Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. As you may know, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Estonia, Mr. Sven Mikser is on an official visit to Azerbaijan. We had one-by-one and extended meeting with participation of delegations.

Firstly, we exchanged congratulatory letters on the 25th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries. There is a political dialogue between Azerbaijan and Estonia on a regular basis. In April of 2017, the 3rd Meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Commission on economic cooperation was held in Baku, more than 10 Estonian companies are actively being operated in the fields of construction, trade, services and IT technologies. I would particularly emphasize that cooperation in the field of IT technologies plays special role in Azerbaijan-Estonia relations.

Meanwhile, I informed my colleague about the current status of negotiation process on resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. Estonia’s stance, which supports the settlement of the conflict in accordance with the relevant resolutions of UN Security Council, is highly appreciated. Regrettably, UN Security Council’s resolutions, which were adopted in 1993 and demand unconditional, immediate and full withdrawal of the military forces of Armenia from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan and to respect territorial integrity, sovereignty and inviolability of internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, have still not implemented. It is a very essential element. We shared opinion that abidance to the norms and principles of international law is a must for the UN Member States.

Furthermore, we had a discussion on cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union. Just for information, today and tomorrow next round of meetings will be held with participation of representatives of the EU Commission and our officials. Also on June 15, 2017 EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn’s visit to Baku is expected. At our meeting planned to be held on June 16, we will discuss the assessments and preparation to the Eastern Partnership Summit to be held in Brussels on November 24, 2017. As my counterpart has already briefed, Estonia has an ambitious plans and vision regarding the EU Council Presidency starting from July. It is highly appreciated that various institutions and Ministries of Azerbaijan are involved to those plans and I would like to thank Mr. Mikser for that. I believe and rather hope that we are on the right track with expediting the Partnership Agreement negotiation process with the EU. Cooperation with the EU is one of foreign policy priorities of Azerbaijan. I think that the speed of the negotiation process is on the pretty good level and as soon as we achieve some progress on that, media and journalist will be informed.

Q&A session:

Question: Aytan Ahmadova, ATV. Mister Minister, the visit of Minsk Group Co-chairs to the region has already started. My question is about your expectations from the visit. Is it expected the new document to be presented during the visit?

Elmar Mammadyarov: Minsk Group Co-chairs are in the region. The meetings were already held in Yerevan and most probably, they will also pay a visit to our occupied territories. Minsk Group Co-chairs arrive to Baku on June 19, 2017 and firstly they will be received by the President of Azerbaijan, H.E Mr. Ilham Aliyev, then we will have a meeting. Negotiations are being continued on the current document, that document was also discussed by the Presidents at Saint Petersburg meeting. We had a very intense discussion on this document at Moscow meeting on April 29, 2017 with participation of foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia. I think that Minsk Group Co-chairs will have statement in this regard during the visit, till then we have to wait for the message brought from Yerevan. Azerbaijan’s position on status-quo remains the same. Inadmissibility of status quo was also stressed by the Presidents of Minsk Group Co-chairs states. The consequences of maintaining status quo is crystal clear.

Thank you!

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