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Azerbaijani President attends North Atlantic Council meeting

12 July 2018 23:39 (UTC +04:00)

A Meeting of the North Atlantic Council at the level of Heads of State and Government with Resolute Support operational partner nations and potential operational partner nations has been held in Brussels, APA reports quoting AzerTAJ.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev attended the meeting.

The head of state before the event met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bakir Izetbegovic.

Speaking at the meeting of the North Atlantic Council, President Ilham Aliyev noted that strong partnership relations between Azerbaijan and NATO play an important role in the issues of regional security and stability: "Since 2002, Azerbaijani peacekeepers have been serving in Afghanistan shoulder to shoulder with NATO soldiers. Since January 2018, Azerbaijan has increased the number of servicemen in the mission "Strong Support" by 30 percent, bringing them to 120 people.

Several times Azerbaijan provided financial support to the Trust Fund for the National Army of Afghanistan. We are organizing exercises in Azerbaijan for the personnel of the army of Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, "ASAN xidmÉ™t" is used, which includes more than 200 public services.

Azerbaijan also provides transport and logistics support to the mission "Strong Support". The commissioning of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway in October last year facilitated the provision of significant transit support for this mission.

Last year, Azerbaijan co-chaired the "Heart of Asia - Istanbul Process", and last month hosted the meeting of the International Contact Group."

The head of state also touched upon the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict: "Azerbaijan, suffering from the Armenian aggression, which resulted in the occupation of 20 percent of its internationally recognized territory, one million of whose compatriots were subjected to known terrible ethnic cleansing, understands the economic and humanitarian consequences occupation and destruction. Azerbaijan highly appreciates the continued support of NATO and the member states of this organization for the political independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity of our country and based on these principles the settlement of the conflict with Armenia. Azerbaijan will continue to assist in eliminating the security threats facing Afghanistan, the achievement of peace and development in the country."

After that, President Ilham Aliyev's visit to Brussels ended.