President Ilham Aliyev: Azerbaijan has very good relations with its neighbors except Armenia

Baku, January 24, AZERTAC “Azerbaijan has very good relations with its neighbors except Armenia,” said President Ilham Aliyev as he addressed an interactive session on "Strategic Outlook: Eurasia" held in Davos as part of the World Economic Forum. “Well, neighborhood, of course, can be a problem and can be an advantage. It depends on your policy, and on your relations with the neighbors. I think that for every country, relations with the neighbors should be a priority, especially in our region. In Azerbaijan we do not have internal risks and threats. Therefore, we must also guarantee security on our borders. And the best way is to establish very pragmatic and very sincere relations with the neighbors based on your national interests and based on the understanding of the national interests of your neighbors,” the head of state noted. “I think that in Azerbaijan we managed to establish such a partnership. With all our neighbors, except Armenia, which continues to occupy almost 20 per cent of our territories, Azerbaijan has very good relations – with the neighbors across the Caspian, with Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, with Georgia, Turkey, Iran and Russia.” President Ilham Aliyev mentioned that despite 26 years of independence Azerbaijan has managed to establish itself as “a truly independent country, which can afford to conduct an independent foreign policy, policy which is based on our national interests and which is not against interests of our neighbors, noting Azerbaijan has a very special format of cooperation with every country of its neighborhood”. “So I think for a country, which is smaller than most of its neighbors, it is important to find this proper balance and to get advantage of the neighborhood because big neighbors mean big markets. And for us the best market is the market of our neighbors. Therefore, mutual interests, balance of interests, of course, non-interference with internal affairs of each other and a very pragmatic practical approach to cooperation in the neighborhood, I think, are one of the reasons for success of our country, one of the reasons for internal stability, and good prospects for the future,” President Ilham Aliyev stressed.