Cooperation between Azerbaijan and the United States will be further expanded, President Ilham Aliyev said receiving US Senator Richard Lugar on Monday. President Aliyev said that the successful Azerbaijan-US cooperation would contribute to security of the region. He also expressed hope that the US Senator’s visit to Azerbaijan would promote development of partnership in strategic fields. Lugar, for his part, stressed firm partnership relations between Azerbaijan and the United States. H...... полностью

Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Safar Abiyev received on Monday US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Coalition and Multinational Operations Debra Cagan. The opportunities for military cooperation between the two countries, the regional situation and activity of Azerbaijani peacekeeping forces were discussed during the meeting, the Ministry of Defense said. US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Anne Derse attended the meeting as well.*... читать

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received a Turkish delegation led by Minister of Culture and Tourism Ertogrul Gunay on Friday. President Aliyev said that relations between Azerbaijan and Turkey were developing successfully in all fields. The two friendly and fraternal countries have ancient historical and cultural roots, said the head of state, stressing a need for strengthening cultural relations. The Azerbaijani leader also said that Turkey had great experience in tourism. He said tha...... полностью

Azerbaijan and Lithuania signed five documents on cooperation in a variety of fields during President Ilham Aliyev’s two-day official visit to Vilnius on Thursday. The papers covered culture, information and communication technologies, tourism, exchange of information on taxation issues as well as a joint declaration on the development of partnership ties. In the declaration, Lithuania said it backed resolution of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict based on the terr...... полностью

The next summit of heads of Caspian states will be held in Tehran, Iran on October 16, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a briefing in Baku. Ahmadinejad said that leaders of all littoral states had agreed to participate in the meeting. “It is important that Caspian be the sea of peace, fraternity and tranquility and there is any opportunity for this,” he said. The Iranian leader said that the Caspian Sea was also a good opportunity to build friendship and fraternity among the peop...... полностью

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev received the Managing Director of the BP Group and Chief Executive of Exploration and Production Andrew Inglis on Wednesday. Inglis said that the commencement of the Shahdaniz gas export in July was an important event, as a result of which Azerbaijan had become one of the international gas suppliers. President Aliyev said that the global energy projects being realized on the initiative and with participation of Azerbaijan were of great significance for th...... полностью

The overwhelming majority of Azerbaijani citizens support President Ilham Aliyev, a recent public opinion poll has found. 84.2% of the people would cast their votes for the incumbent head of state if presidential elections were held today, according to the survey conducted by local Legal and Democratic Reforms Center from early July to mid-August among 1,654 respondents across the country. Asked of the possibility of a referendum to authorize the president’s election for more than two ter...... полностью

The United States is concerned over the situation with human rights and media freedom in Azerbaijan, the Department of State said in a statement. US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Daniel Fried and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov discussed related matters during a joint video-conference last week, the statement said. International media organizations have reported that Azerbaijani authorities allegedly take advantage of defamation and libel clauses...... полностью

Azerbaijan and Russia have agreed 92% of the frontier so far, an Azeri official said. The two countries will negotiate the delineation of three areas, Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov told journalists. All outstanding issues will be solved by state commissions on the principles of international norms, he said. “Presently, the Azerbaijan-Russia relations are of a strategic nature. There are no restrictions for future agreements,” the diplomat said. Khalafov said that Azerbaijan a...... полностью

About 20 diplomats from 15 countries and representatives of international organizations operating in Azerbaijan have visited Guba, the country’s northern district populated by various ethnic minorities. The visit, organized by the Israeli embassy in Baku, aimed to get familiar with the living standards of ethnic groups, including a large number of mountainous Jews, who have lived in the region for many years. Azerbaijan, which is home to many ethnic minorities, can set an example for other...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev will visit Georgia on Saturday to attend the inauguration of a monument to the nationwide leader Heydar Aliyev on the Maydan Square of Tbilisi. Aliyev will also take part in the opening of busts to four Azerbaijani literary figures and thinkers in the botanical garden of the capital, the Georgian president’s press-service said. The busts to Fatali Khan Khoisky, Mirza Shafi Vazeh, Hasan-bay Aghayev and Mirza Fatali Akhundov were built with the support of the Heydar A...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev on Sunday sent a message of congratulation to Nicolas Sarkozy on his election as the new French president. In his letter, Aliyev said he attached great importance to friendly ties between Azerbaijan and France. “I am confident that relations between our countries and cooperation in many areas of mutual interest will continuously expand for the sake of the welfare of our peoples,” the letter said.*... читать

The foreign ministries of Russia and Azerbaijan started consultations on issues of partnership, regional cooperation and security in Moscow on Monday. Cooperation between the two countries in integration into European organizations will be in focus as well, the Azerbaijan Foreign Ministry spokesman Khazar Ibrahim said. Azerbaijan will be represented at the talks by a delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov, while Russia - by the heads of the Foreign Ministry departments on CI...... полностью

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov visiting the United States for talks with top officials will meet Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday. Mammadyarov will also hold meetings with other State Department officials and representatives of the Bush administration. He will also deliver a speech at the John Hopkins University and meet with the leaders of local non-government organizations. Azerbaijan and the U.S. are to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy cooperation ...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev received Belarusian Minister for Emergencies Enver Bariyev on Tuesday. Aliyev said cooperation between Azerbaijan and Belarus is developing successfully in all fields and that his visit to Belarus in 2006 was important in this respect. President Aliyev expressed confidence that cooperation between different bodies of the two countries will contribute to closer ties between the ministries of emergencies. Bariyev, in turn, said Belarus is interested in establishing broad...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev is scheduled to pay his first official visit to Tajikistan March 15-16, Russian media quoted Tajik official sources as saying. The rapid growth of the Azerbaijani economy and the funds available from the exports of oil make Baku an attractive potential investor in the Tajik economy, a foreign ministry official said. The source added that Tajikistan binds hopes with its cooperation with Azerbaijan and that its projects on building hydro-power plants and tapping oil and g...... полностью

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to visit Azerbaijan in May, Ambassador Vasiliy Istratov said. During the talks, the parties will discuss issues of bilateral and regional cooperation, prospects for settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan Upper (Nagorno) Garabagh conflict as well as political situation in the South Caucasus and Caspian regions, the diplomat said. The relations between Baku and Moscow have been facing some tension since last year’s dispute over gas supplies. The situation ...... полностью

Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has said the missile defense system the United States plans to station in the South Caucasus will not be based in his country. In reply to journalists’ questions, Saakashvili said there is no official information available on the stationing of such radars. “All the reports in this respect are a mere speculation,” he said. Pentagon officials have announced plans to station a mobile radar in one of the South Caucasus countries. Analysts say that such a ra...... полностью

Russia is utterly concerned over the United States’ plans to station a missile defense system in Eastern Europe and one of the South Caucasus countries, as it would allow US military to track vast Russian territories, a senior military official says. “The stationing of such facilities in the Czech Republic and the Caucasus would allow them to control extensive territories of the Russian Federation,” Russian Air Force deputy chief, Gen. Aytech Bizhev said. The United States is in talks with P...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev received a delegation led by Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga on Wednesday. Aliyev said the Azeri-Polish relations are developing successfully. He praised the level of cooperation between the two countries, saying Fotyga’s visit to Azerbaijan would contribute to their further strengthening. The Polish minister said diplomatic relations between Azerbaijan and Poland have a history of about 15 years, adding that Warsaw deems these ties as very important.*... читать

Azerbaijani officials have confirmed media reports saying Iranian war helicopters entered Azerbaijan’s air space and briefly flew over the southern town of Astara on Thursday. “Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov is currently in Iran and the issue will be raised there,” the State Border Service chief Elchin Guliyev told the press Monday. He said that a host of helicopters accompanying the Iranian president on his visit to the borderline regions indeed made several circles over Azerbaijani ...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev held meetings with executives of the world’s two major oil companies on Friday. The Vice-President of French Total on Central Europe and Continental Asia, Arnaud Breuillac said during the meeting that Aliyev’s recent official visit to France was of great significance for expanding relations and economic cooperation between the two countries. President Aliyev said Total had been successfully operating in Azerbaijan for many years and expressed hope that its cooperation wi...... полностью

The Iranian ambassador in Baku Afshar Suleymani has cited rapprochement in the positions of Iran and Azerbaijan on the determination of the Caspian legal status. He reminded that the littoral states – Azerbaijan, Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan – will hold another meeting of the joint taskforce in Tehran, Iran February 27-28 ahead of a summit. “Both sides are studying the legal and technical aspects of the issue on the taskforce level,” the envoy told reporters on Friday. “Althoug...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev received credentials from the newly-appointed envoys of Turkey, Korea and Norway on Monday. In a meeting with the Turkish ambassador, Huseyin Avni Karslioglu, President Aliyev said the high-level cooperation between Azerbaijan and Turkey substantially affects the development of the region, noting that energy and transport projects make the two countries even closer. The Turkish diplomat, in turn, called Azerbaijan “his second motherland” and vowed to make every effort to...... полностью

Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev will visit Azerbaijan on Wednesday at the invitation of his Azerbaijani counterpart Ramil Usubov. Views on strengthening cooperation between the two countries’ law-enforcement agencies will be exchanged during the visit, the Russian ministry said. The two will also discuss the situation with crime in the two countries and prospects for cooperation between the interior troops, as well as approve a cooperation plan for 2007-2008. A joint declaration w...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev cannot interfere with the broadcasting council’s decision last week to close down ANS TV, the head of the President’s Office socio-political department, Ali Hasanov, has said. He was commenting on Monday’s appeal forwarded by a group of renowned public figures to the president, requesting to resume the broadcaster’s operation. Hasanov said the authorities could issue only political commentary on any given issue. “The head of state, as a person carrying out all executiv...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev said on Wednesday that ANS TV shut down last week may continue operation if it complies with the existing regulations and warnings. “I believe that all these issues may be solved in a working manner and based on goodwill,” he told AzTV channel while commenting on the situation with media in Azerbaijan that has lately been in public spotlight. “If the criticism and warnings are taken into account, the channel may continue its activity.” Aliyev said he had always supporte...... полностью

President Ilham Aliyev is expected to visit Azerbaijan’s northwestern districts on Tuesday. In Dashkasan and Samukh, the head of state will pay tribute to the monuments to the nationwide leader, former president Heydar Aliyev. In Ganja, Aliyev is scheduled to attend the opening of an international airport and visit a swimming pool facility. He will also inaugurate a new caramel factory. This will be the President’s first visit to the Dashkasan and Samukh districts.*... читать

President Ilham Aliyev received a Spanish delegation headed by Minister of Health and Consumer Affairs Elena Salgado on Monday. Salgado noted that she is the first minister of Span to visit Azerbaijan, saying her visit would play an important role for expanding bilateral ties. Spain is interested in developing relations with Azerbaijan in various fields, she added. President Aliyev expressed hope that the visit would help expand relations between the two countries. He said the recent openi...... полностью

Azerbaijani parliament speaker Ogtay Asadov will pay a visit to Ukraine on Wednesday to attend an event dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the Babiy Yar tragedy. Asadov will also hold bilateral meetings during the visit, a source from the parliament said. During a recent visit to Baku, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko invited his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev to the event. Representatives of 41 countries, including the presidents of Israel, Croatia and Montenegro are also expec...... полностью