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BAKU: Azeri Pundit Pessimistic About High-Level Talks With Armenia

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  • BAKU: Azeri Pundit Pessimistic About High-Level Talks With Armenia

    AZERI PUNDIT PESSIMISTIC ABOUT HIGH-LEVEL TALKS WITH ARMENIA

    Day.az, Azerbaijan
    Nov 28 2006

    Well-known political expert Rasim Musabayov has granted an exclusive
    interview to Day.az.

    [Correspondent] What do you expect from the forthcoming Minsk meeting
    between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and
    Robert Kocharyan?

    [Musabayov] There is a minimal possibility that some document will be
    signed after the meeting. There is not even a hint that the foreign
    ministers have agreed on the text of such a document. On the contrary,
    the statements that Ilham Aliyev and Robert Kocharyan made before
    the meeting in Minsk do not inspire optimism and show that it will
    be difficult to bring the positions of the sides closer.

    Therefore, it would be good if the presidents appear in front of
    journalists together after the meeting to say that the negotiations
    were useful. And it should be regarded as success if there is a
    statement that they managed to bring their positions on disputable
    issues closer and that the foreign ministers of the two states were
    instructed to hold an additional round of negotiations bearing in
    mind the progress achieved during the presidents' meeting.

    [Passage omitted: on Russia's relations with Georgia and other
    countries]

    [Correspondent] What kind of policy do you think is Azerbaijan
    pursuing now?

    [Musabayov] A prudent one, and this is justified by the situation.

    Unlike Georgia and Ukraine, Azerbaijan is not only under pressure
    from Moscow, but also has quite problem relations with neighbouring
    Iran and a frozen war with Armenia.

    Therefore, the republic's leadership has to manoeuvre, balance and try
    not to irritate Moscow even more with its open pro-Western orientation.

    But we should not forget where our strategic pipelines go as well
    as the fact that we have the leading Western energy company BP as a
    partner and that fraternal Turkey, our only real strategic partner,
    is a member state of NATO. All this defines Azerbaijan's pro-Western
    orientation.

    We should honour our commitments step by step within the framework of
    Azerbaijan's Individual Partnership Action Plan [IPAP] with NATO and
    the Azerbaijan-EU Action Plan. As for political decisions and making
    them public, the time will come for them.
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