NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Baku on 17 March to meet with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev amid the three-nation three-day tour across the South Caucasus.
Energy matters for our security and I welcome that Azerbaijan is developing closer and closer ties with several NATO Allies.
Stoltenberg outlined issues of mutual interest and praised Azerbaijan for its contribution to NATO-led operations and missions, including in Kosovo and Afghanistan, since Azerbaijan joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme in 1994.
The parties also co-operate within NATO’s Peace and Security programme on counter-terrorism and cyber security. The Secretary General emphasised that “peace and stability is not only important here [in the South Caucasus] but for security more broadly.”
“Armenia and Azerbaijan now have an opportunity to achieve an enduring peace after years of conflict. I can just encourage you to seize this opportunity to reach a lasting peace agreement with Armenia.”
Stoltenberg called the upcoming COP29 Global Climate Summit in Azerbaijan an important milestone:
It is important for everyone concerned about climate change but also important for our security because those issues are closely interlinked.
The Secretary General is meeting with Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Defence Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov on Monday. He will then travel to Tbilisi to meet with the Georgian leadership. On Tuesday, Stoltenberg will meet with the Armenian authorities in Yerevan.
