No:330/17, Joint press conference by the Foreign Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Elmar Mammadyarov and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federative Republic of Brazil Mr. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira
Elmar Mammadyarov: Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs! As you probably know, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federative Republic of Brazil Aloysio Nunes is on an official visit to Azerbaijan. A.Nunes was received by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, His Excellency Mr. Ilham Aliyev.
We had extensive discussions on various aspects of relations between Azerbaijan and Brazil at the meetings held in one-on-one and broad formats. The Latin American region is one of Azerbaijan's foreign policy priorities and in this regard, Azerbaijan is interested in deepening relations with Brazil and this intention has been stated again in our meeting today.
There is a successful political dialogue between Azerbaijan and Brazil on the political level and this dialogue positively serves a basis for the cooperation at the multilateral platforms. The positions of Azerbaijan and Brazil are almost similar on the issues of international agenda.
There is a mechanism for political consultations between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan and Brazil, and already two consultations have been held within the framework of this mechanism. We have expressed our common position on the importance of continuing this platform, which is useful for the discussion of international and regional issues. Most likely next year the following round of political consultations will be held in Baku.
During the meeting, I briefed the Minister about Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the meetings held by OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs, and the current status of negotiations on conflict resolution. I would recall that the 4 resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council regarding Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict in 1993 have coincided with the non-permanent membership of Brazil to the Security Council. Regrettably, those resolutions have not been implemented yet and that remains a major threat to the peace and security in the region.
In April 2018 Non-Aligned Movement Ministerial Meeting will be held in Baku and I invited my colleague to attend this meeting. I also told Minister A.Nunes about the candidacy of Baku to the EXPO-2025 exhibition and expressed hope that the candidacy of Azerbaijan would be supported by Brazil.
The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Brazil in the first 6 months of 2017 is standing around 160 million USD; of course, this figure does not satisfy us because it does not reflect the potential of Azerbaijan and Brazil. We have agreed on expanding our economic cooperation. In 2018, the Azerbaijani delegation is scheduled to visit Brazil to discuss our economic relations and holding business forums.
Air industry is one of the areas of mutually beneficial partnership between Azerbaijan and Brazil, as a number of Embraer planes are part of passenger fleet of AZAL, national air carrier of Azerbaijan. We are ready to continue cooperation in this direction.
Regarding the field of education, the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between ADA University and the Rio Branco Institute, and I hope that this legal framework will contribute to the development of our cooperation in the field of education.
Q&A session:
Question: Vugar Hasanov, RIA Novosti. Mr. Minister, certain activity is being observed in the negotiation process on the settlement of
the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. As it is known, you are scheduled to meet with the Co-chairs in Moscow on November 16, 2017. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is expected to visit Azerbaijan on November 20, 2017. Is the trilateral meeting planned, and what proposals does S. Lavrov come to Baku with?
Elmar Mammadyarov: Tomorrow we will meet with the Co-chairs in Moscow around at 11:00 am. On 19-20 November, my Russian colleague will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan. The issues to be discussed are on the table. Azerbaijan's position has been repeatedly stated: we want the negotiations to be result-oriented. We demand logical and substantial negotiations. You are probably familiar with the Joint Statement by Foreign Ministers and the Minsk Group Co-Chairs on the 16 October Geneva meeting of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia. The statement also highlights the intensified negotiations. Achieving progress and moving forward in the negotiations is our key position. The time has already come for the settlement of the conflict. The result-oriented negotiation is now a must. Internally displaced persons should return to their places of origin and peace should be restored in the region.
Full video of the joint press conference can be obtained from the following link.
