From the speech of President of the Azerbaijan Republic Heydar Aliyev made at the negotiations between the high level delegations of the USA and the Azerbaijan Republic. Washington, White House, August 1, 1997


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Mr. President Bill Clinton!

Honorable members of the delegation of the USA!

First of all, I express my gratitude to Mr. Bill Clinton for the official invitation to visit the USA and hospitality, for attention to a steady development of the American-Azerbaijan cooperation and want to mention that I am fully satisfied with the present state of relations between our countries.

I bring to your attention that there are wide opportunities for much greater development of Azerbaijani-American cooperation and our republic is always interested in closer contacts with the USA. Much work in the field of further improvement of the relations between our countries has been done step by step.

In this sense, the participation of the biggest oil companies of the USA in the contracts signed for joint exploitation of oilfields of the Caspian Sea should be evaluated very positively. In September 1994, we signed the first contract called the Contract of the Century and five big US companies are partners in this contract. Nowadays, this contract is being practically implemented.

I have widely discussed the issues on the determination of the routes of oil pipelines, transporting oil abroad, to the West at personal meetings and in telephone talks with Mr. Bill Clinton, and I declare that definite work has already been fulfilled in this sphere. Two oil pipelines are being built to export oil to the West, to the world markets. The construction of the third big oil pipeline will start soon.

At the same time, we have never forgotten the fact that Azerbaijan, occupying a very favorable strategic position, plays an important role in even greater rapprochement of the links between the countries of the Central Asia and the world market and considerable work has been carried out in our republic toward this end. The oil extracted in the Kazakh “Tengiz” oilfield is delivered to Baku by the Caspian Sea and is transported from there to the world market. For this purpose, an oil pipeline will be laid across the bottom of the Caspian Sea to Baku.

You know that today new contracts between the US companies “Chevron”, “Exxon”, “Mobil” and “AMOCO” and the Azerbaijan State Oil Company are to be signed. There is no doubt that these contracts will give a new impulse to strengthening the American-Azerbaijan economic cooperation and play an important role in improving the relations between our countries.

I state that personal friendly relations with Mr. Bill Clinton create a strong basis for the continuous development of the American-Azerbaijan contacts. Stressing with satisfaction the personal initiatives of President Bill Clinton in the field of further development of relations between our countries, I want to note that we highly appreciate this. Mr. President, you do much in this line and we constantly feel your help and support.

As we all know, much work in the field of peaceful settlement of the Armenian–Azerbaijani conflict is carried out within the framework of the Minsk Group of OSCE. Three basic principles on the peaceful settlement of the conflict adopted at the Lisbon Summit of the OSCE have vital importance. We mention with satisfaction the support of the US government in the adoption of these principles.

We appreciate the efforts of the USA as a co-chair of the Minsk Group of OSCE in the immediate solution of the Armenian–Azerbaijan conflict. At the same time, we would like to the stress special importance of the joint statement signed in Denver by the presidents of three authoritative states – Bill Clinton, Boris Yeltsin and Jacque Chirac. Azerbaijan has taken as a basis the proposals advanced by the co-chairs of the Minsk Group of OSCE connected with the solution of this conflict. We are waiting for Armenia to express its attitude to these proposals. Azerbaijan cherishes great hopes upon the immediate solution of this conflict and believes that over a million of our citizens expelled from the native territories will soon return home. We are sure that the co-chairs of the Minsk Group will render necessary assistance for the immediate settlement of the conflict based on the principles adopted at the Lisbon Summit and strive for the solution of this conflict until the end of this year.

We think it is necessary to mention again that section 907 to the “Freedom Support Act” adopted by the US Congress in 1992, is an unjust and creates definite obstacles the development of the Azerbaijani-American relations. Therefore, the immediate repeal of this section is necessary. I have had meetings and talks with the congressmen over this issue in Washington. I want to express the confidence that necessary measures will be taken to repeal this section.

Azerbaijan has also joined the Flank agreement on the limitation of conventional armaments in Europe. Along with this, much work in the field of protection and preservation of independence, sovereignty and security of our country is being done within the established boundaries. I declare again that the independence of Azerbaijan is eternal, unalterable and irreversible. There are no troops and military bases of foreign countries in Azerbaijan and will not be henceforth.

Along with it, I want to emphasize that Russia’s illegal delivery of modern arms to Armenia worth of one billion dollars causes much concern from the point of view of regional security.

Azerbaijan regards the USA as a close friend and a partner. I think that it important to mention that the socio-political situation in our country is stable, reforms in economy on the market principles are being carried out and important measures in the field of development of democracy and protection of human rights are realized. Henceforth, we shall follow this road. The economy of Azerbaijan is open for the entire world, including the US investments.

I think that it necessary and I am glad to mention that the achievements of the United States and personally of President Bill Clinton in foreign and internal policy, including achievements in the social field are met with satisfaction in Azerbaijan.

In conclusion, make use of the opportunity here, I invite President of the USA Mr. Bill Clinton and vice-president Albert Gore to pay official visits to the Republic of Azerbaijan.