Category: Selected Articles

16:55, 14 September 2023

The 5th Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia has been held in Dushanbe.

Report informs via AZERTAC that President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the meeting as the guest of honor.

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon welcomed President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and other heads of state.

Then, a family photo was taken.

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon, President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Zhaparov, President of Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedov and President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev addressed the event.

Then the floor was given to the President of Azerbaijan.

Speech by President Ilham Aliyev

– Dear Emomali Sharipovich!

Esteemed heads of state!

Dear friends!

First, I would like to express my gratitude to the President of Tajikistan, esteemed Emomali Sharipovich Rahmon, for the invitation to attend the 5th Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia as the guest of honor. I also express my gratitude to dear colleagues for supporting Azerbaijan’s participation in this event.

This is my second visit to brotherly Tajikistan this year. My state visit in April, decisions taken during the visit and the signed documents reaffirmed the strategic nature of our relations. We are looking forward to the state visit of the President of Tajikistan to Azerbaijan. I am confident that it will further contribute to strengthening of our relations. Taking this opportunity, I would like to congratulate the friendly people of Tajikistan on the Independence Day.

Azerbaijan and the countries of Central Asia are bound by the centuries-long brotherhood ties of our peoples. Shared cultural roots are the solid foundation of interstate relations.

For over 30 years, as independent states, we actively engage both in bilateral and multilateral formats. We support each other’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and actively develop economic ties. With growing economy, demographics and geopolitical potential Central Asia and Azerbaijan is a single historical and cultural geographic region of strategic significance in world politics.

It is the first time that I am participating in the Consultative Meeting, and I wish to express my confidence that this format of regional cooperation will contribute to bringing our countries and peoples closer.

In the last 2 years I have paid 9 visits to the Central Asian states. During the same period, all the heads of the brotherly states made numerous visits to Azerbaijan. The active dynamics of reciprocal visits will continue until the end of the year.

The growth of mutual trade and investments is one of the key factors of the bilateral cooperation. It is gratifying that the figures in both of those directions indicate consistent growth.

Last year the trade turnover of Azerbaijan with the Central Asian countries increased more than 3 times. During 7 months of this year – for another 50 %.

Joint investment funds have been established, and with over $1 billion of investments for the coming 3 years have been agreed. We are already implementing many projects in the sphere of industrial cooperation, machine-building, automobile industry, shipbuilding and agriculture, namely cotton production, sericulture, horticulture and livestock farming. Investment projects in hotel business and tourism are at the initial stage of implementation. We see the interest of Central Asian companies in the Alat Free Economic Zone established recently in Azerbaijan.

The sphere of transportation and logistics holds an important place in our relations. For the Central Asian countries Azerbaijan is a reliable transit country along the route to the markets of Türkiye and Europe. Not of the least significance is the transit in the opposite direction. Our brothers in Central Asia know that Azerbaijan’s entire transportation and logistics infrastructure is available to them.

We are modernizing the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to meet the rising demand for cargo transportation through the East-West route. The cargo volume via that road will be increased from 1 to 5 million tons. In parallel to that, the capacity of the Baku Trade Port is also being expanded from current 15 to 25 million tons.

Azerbaijan has the largest trade fleet in the Caspian Sea with over 50 vessels. Given the growing demand of the shippers from Central Asia, we are actively working on expanding the capabilities of our shipyard. Upon the completion of investment projects, the number of manufactured tankers and dry cargo vessels will be increased from current 6 to 10-15 vessels annually.

It is necessary to ensure optimization of tariffs and simplification and streamlining of regulatory and customs procedures in order to attract larger volume of cargo. Digitalization of the East-West transportation corridor is one the key factors in providing for transparency of transit shipping and creating equal opportunities for parties involved in the transportation process.

The Digital Silk Way project on the establishment of a fiber-optic infrastructure is the new cooperation sphere between our countries that we are actively working on.

Dear colleagues!

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the inception of the United Nations Special Program for the Economies of Central Asia – SPECA. I have sent official invitations to the esteemed heads of state and will be delighted to welcome you at the Summit in Baku this November.

I want to once again express my gratitude to all the heads of state for the invitation to today’s meeting and wish the brotherly peoples of Central Asia peace and prosperity.

Thank you for your attention.

X X X

The initiative of holding consultative meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asia was put forward by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in 2017. The first meeting was held in Kazakhstan, the second in Uzbekistan, the third in Turkmenistan, and the fourth in Kyrgyzstan.

14:26

The 5th Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia has kicked off in Dushanbe.

Report informs via AZERTAC that President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev is attending the meeting as the guest of honor.

President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon welcomed President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and other heads of state.

Then, a family photo was taken.

X X X

The initiative of holding consultative meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asia was put forward by President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev in 2017. The first meeting was held in Kazakhstan, the second in Uzbekistan, the third in Turkmenistan, and the fourth in Kyrgyzstan.

BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 14. Armenian
Defense Minister Suren Papikyan met with the Commander of the
Ground Forces of the Russian Armed Forces, Army General Oleg
Salyukov, and the new commander of the Russian peacekeeping
contingent in Karabakh, Major General Kirill Kulakov, Trend reports.

During the meeting, the sides discussed the situation in the
zone of responsibility for peacekeepers as well as the issue of
increasing the efficiency of the Russian peacekeeping mission.

The meeting also emphasized the importance of implementing all
points of the Trilateral Statement.

Earlier on September 12, Commander of the Ground Forces of the
Russian Armed Forces Army General Oleg Salyukov presented the new
commander of the Russian peacekeeping contingent, Major General
Kirill Kulakov, to Azerbaijani Defense Minister Colonel General
Zakir Hasanov.

16:55, 14 September 2023

16:59, 14 September 2023

In a possible sign of the geopolitical realignment driven by Russia’s invasion in Ukraine, U.S. forces commenced on Monday 10 days of joint exercises with Armenian soldiers. About 175 Armenian soldiers will train with about 85 soldiers from U.S. Army Europe and Africa Command outside the capital of Yerevan.

Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Armenia has been an important security partner for Russia and houses one of a small handful of military bases the Kremlin maintains on foreign soil. The country has also remained a member of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a security alliance of former Soviet countries, which Moscow has developed as an answer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

But Armenia has increasingly worked to shrug off Russian influence, particularly in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan directly denied a Russian announcement that the CSTO would host exercises this year in Armenia. He also refused to send troops for those exercises, which were ultimately held in Belarus earlier this month.

A senior State Department official acknowledged that the U.S. is looking to bolster its partnerships with countries that had traditionally leaned on Moscow for economic and military cooperation, although that official dismissed the notion that was the reason for the joint exercises with Armenia.

“We’re always looking for an opportunity to deepen our bilateral ties with these countries,” the official said.

Armenia has hosted NATO forces previously for training. U.S. officials said the joint exercises with Armenia had been long in the works and would be focused on peacekeeping operations.

Last week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed “alarm” over the exercises.

The exercises come amid growing regional tensions between Armenia and neighboring Azerbaijan as well as Yerevan’s growing frustration with Russia’s failure to enforce a 2020 cease-fire it brokered between the two countries while the Kremlin is mired in the Ukraine war.

While part of Armenia’s turn to the West reflects a generational shift of younger people who see their future tied to Europe and the U.S., it is also driven by Armenia’s frustration with Russia. It says Moscow, distracted by Ukraine, has failed to fulfill security guarantees in Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory that lies inside Azerbaijan but has been disputed, often violently, between Azerbaijan and Armenia for three decades.

The enclave, predominantly Armenian with a population of approximately 120,000, broke away from Azerbaijan in the 1990s.

After heavy fighting with Armenia in 2020, Azerbaijan has since reasserted control around the territory. At the time, Russia brokered a cease-fire, promising to stop the violence and ensure freedom of movement for both sides through the Lachin Corridor, the main road connecting Nagorno-Karabakh to Armenia and a critical route for the delivery of food, fuel and medicine to the enclave.

But Azerbaijan has since imposed a de-facto blockade on that corridor. Last month, the United Nations urged Azerbaijan to lift the blockade to “alleviate the suffering of thousands of people in Nagorno-Karabakh and allow for the unimpeded flow of humanitarian assistance to the civilian population.”

Azerbaijan says it is preventing the import of weapons into the territory from Armenia, a claim Armenia has denied.

Over the past week, Azerbaijan has built up troops around the enclave and on the border of Armenia, a move that Pashinyan said had aggravated the regional political and military situation.

Previously, Moscow also failed to come to Armenia’s aid in 2021 through the CSTO when the country accused Azerbaijan of advancing inside Armenian territory.

“Armenia is overly dependent on Russia and that is our biggest strategic vulnerability and our biggest mistake, something we have to change with the West and other partners,” said Areg Kochinyan, president of the Yerevan-based Research Center on Security Policy.

“It’s not just that Armenians are no longer seeing Russia as a partner, it’s that they’re starting to call it a traitor,” he added.

So far, Armenia has been careful not to provoke Russia, which invaded Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine last year over the countries’ attempts to break out of its orbit. Nonetheless, Moscow has increasingly criticized pro-Western Armenian rhetoric and its expressions of frustration as “bordering on rudeness.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry also said last week that it summoned the Armenian ambassador to the ministry to protest increasingly anti-Russian rhetoric among Armenian officials.

As tensions rise between Russia and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh, the U.S. has played an increasingly active role in the region, condemning the humanitarian crisis inside Nagorno-Karabakh and calling for Azerbaijan to reopen the Lachin Corridor.

Washington played a role in negotiating a cease-fire when hostilities flared up last year. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also held meetings with Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev this year.

The current military exercises in Armenia have raised concern in Azerbaijan that the U.S. can’t be an honest broker in its conflict with Yerevan, despite repeated efforts by Blinken, as well as European and U.N. officials, to hold talks with both sides to ease tensions.

A senior State Department official described the exercises as part of an “ongoing partnership” with Armenia and dismissed claims that they signaled any type of bias, adding that “transparency is the way to go on so many of these issues.”

Write to Vivian Salama at vivian.salama@wsj.com and Thomas Grove at thomas.grove@wsj.com