AZERBAIJAN IS AN IMPORTANT PARTNER OF THE UNITED STATES, GORDON

Washington, 17 June (AzerTAc). Azerbaijan is an important partner of the United States on regional security (especially counterterrorism) and on helping our European allies diversify their supplies of natural gas, said Philip Gordon, Assistant Secretary Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs while speaking before the Subcommittee on Europe of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Strengthening the Transatlantic Alliance: An Overview of the Obama Administration`s Policies in Europe.
He said Azerbaijan exports nearly one million barrels of oil per day to global markets via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, free from geographic chokepoints (such as the Turkish Straits and the Straits of Hormuz) and from monopolistic pressures. Gordon also touched upon the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, saying the United States has helped generate new progress toward a settlement of the problem.
“Our U.S. Co-chair of the OSCE’s Minsk Group, Deputy Assistant Secretary Matt Bryza, joined his Russian and French colleagues in facilitating five meetings between Presidents Aliyev and Sargsian over the past year. Secretary Clinton has been personally engaged in a series of discussions with Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders, including meetings with Foreign Ministers Mammadyarov and Nalbandian in Washington on May 5.”