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BAKU: Baku denies Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers to meet at NATO

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  • BAKU: Baku denies Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers to meet at NATO

    Baku denies Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers to meet at NATO HQ

    Ekspress, Baku
    14 Sep 04

    Text of Alakbar Raufoglu report by Azerbaijani newspaper Ekspress
    on 14 September entitled "Unexpected visit. Mammadyarov and Oskanyan
    are in Brussels"

    Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov flew to Brussels
    yesterday. Ekspress newspaper has learnt from diplomatic sources
    that, during a two-day visit, the foreign minister will have a series
    of meetings with the European Union's enlargement commissioner and
    attend a sitting of the EU-Azerbaijan cooperation commission due to
    start today.

    The minister is also expected to join discussions at NATO headquarters.
    Mammadyarov will debate Azerbaijani-NATO cooperation within the
    framework of the Partnership for Peace programme with the alliance
    leadership.

    "The minister is paying a working visit and, therefore, no precise
    topic or principal issue is on the agenda," Foreign Ministry spokesman
    Matin Mirza told Ekspress yesterday. He said that Mammadyarov's
    attendance at the sitting of the EU-Azerbaijan commission had been
    scheduled in advance and the visit had nothing to do with NATO.

    In the meantime, Armenian sources report that Armenian Foreign Minister
    Vardan Oskanyan, who was on a visit to Poland, went unexpectedly to
    Brussels yesterday. "Mammadyarov and Oskanyan were suddenly invited
    to Brussels yesterday to have consultations on the participation
    of the Armenian officers in the Cooperative Best Effort - 2004
    exercises," Armenia's Arka news agency reported. The source claims
    that the Brussels talks between Azerbaijani and Armenian experts
    on the possibility of the Armenian officers participating in the
    Baku-hosted NATO exercises failed. So during Saturday's discussions,
    the representatives of the two countries left the debates and
    "therefore, the alliance's leadership decided to thrash out this
    issue at ministerial level".

    "The reports are wide of the mark. There is no way that the Azerbaijani
    and Armenian foreign ministers will meet in Brussels in any form,"
    Mirza said.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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