The second and final leg of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Manlio Di Stefano’s mission to the Caucasus Region has ended with a visit to Baku and the city of Aghdam in Azerbaijan.
In the Capital of Azerbaijan, the Deputy Secretary was received by the Country’s President Aliyev and met with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Bayramov, and of Energy Parviz Shahbazov, as well as the Head of the Presidential Administration responsible for reconstruction of districts that are once again under Azerbaijanian Control, Samir Nuryev.
These meetings made it possible to further extend ties at all levels between Italy and Azerbaijan, in the wake of the success of the State Visit by President Aliyev to Italy in February 2020, and strengthened by numerous meetings held at a government level over the past two years.
Deputy Minister Di Stefano reiterated our position in favour of the process of stabilising the region, also by applying confidence building measures, and offered Italy’s contribution to mine clearing and recognition and preservation of the cultural and religious heritage.
The visit was rounded off with a mission in the field by the Deputy Minister in the City of Aghdam, one of the Azerbaijanian districts liberated in recent weeks, following the Trilateral Declaration.
“What I found,” said Deputy Minister Di Stefano, “was a Country that is extremely keen to cooperate with Italy, at all levels. We are ready to contribute to a sustainable process of stabilisation of the region, also within the ambit of the Minsk Group, backing a return to negotiations. Italy is willing to provide its know-how and skills in the area of reconstruction, and today I found that my contacts were in favour of such a move. We will work with the Azerbaijani within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding, in order to extract the utmost value from our companies’ professionalism”.
