Azerbaijan expects Paris to send a serious message to the new Armenian leadership about the need to take a constructive position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani ambassador to France Rahman Mustafayev said in an interview with Trend.

Mustafayev was commenting on the results of the recent visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to France, Trend reports.

"First of all, I would like to stress that the Azerbaijani president updated the new French president about our position on the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict,I think that for the first time President Macron was updated about an objective situation and the conflict assessment.”- he said.

“Our position is simple and based on the principles of international law and the corresponding resolutions of the UN Security Council,” Mustafayev said.

“We hope that the new Armenian leadership will not repeat the mistakes of the former president, imitating the negotiation process and making deliberately unacceptable demands, but will return to the negotiating table for a substantive dialogue and real negotiations. By the way, the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group are also calling for that."

“As for France, the country is aware of its special responsibility for the establishment of stable peace in the South Caucasus region and it invariably declares its readiness to work to find a peaceful solution to the conflict,” he said.

"Therefore, we can reasonably expect the new French leadership to continue active and initiatory involvement in the peace process in accordance with the mandate of the OSCE Minsk Group, which is based, inter alia, on the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council,” Mustafayev said. “Of course, we expect Paris to send a serious message to the new Armenian leadership about the need to take a constructive stance and return to the peace talks."

“Strengthening of the political dialogue with the country’s new leadership, first of all, the president of France, the heads of the National Assembly and the Senate, was indeed the most important task of this visit,” he said.

"It is no secret that trusting relations based on mutual respect and understanding, taking into account each other's interests, are the most important prerequisite for the development of political and economic cooperation between the countries,” Mustafayev said. “Therefore, from the point of view of further development of our relations, I assess the results of the visit as very positive. Azerbaijan’s president held substantive talks with his French counterpart, as well as the heads of both chambers of the parliament, and these relations will continue to develop."

The diplomat stressed that the visit to Paris was made after several successful European meetings of Azerbaijan’s president at the highest level, namely, with the president of the EU Council in Brussels and Italy’s president in Baku.

"Other meetings with European leaders are planned to be held,” he said. “All these facts testify to the strengthening of the international authority of our country, the recognition of the independent nature of its foreign policy, its important regional significance."

Mustafayev said that today many European leaders understand that the pro-European orientation of Baku is important not only for the country, but also for Europe itself.

"Azerbaijan is a secular Muslim country, an active bridge of dialogue and cooperation between Europe and Asia, Europe and the Islamic world. It is a factor of stability and security for the entire region, struck by the viruses of national chauvinism, religious fanaticism and extremism.”—ambassador stressed.

Efsane Elesgerli,
“Khalg qazeti”