Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev Before Their Meeting

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Well, good afternoon, everyone, Mr. President.  I very much appreciate this opportunity to spend time with President Aliyev.  We’ve had many opportunities over the last few years to speak and to meet.  I think this is an important time – important in Azerbaijan taking on the leadership of COP, something we strongly support and we look forward to doing everything we can to make that successful; but also in pursuing a durable and dignified peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, an area where the United States has worked to be helpful and will continue to do so, as requested.

There’s lots to talk about.  Mr. President, thank you so much for spending the time today.

PRESIDENT ALIYEV:  Thank you, Mr. Secretary.  And as the Secretary mentioned, the COP29 is an important part of our bilateral agenda, or it expands, actually, topics on our agenda, and we count on the support from your government in all our initiatives during this year.  And as Mr. Secretary mentioned, we have also one issue on our agenda, which is the regional situation in the Caucasus, particularly prospects for a peace settlement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.  Azerbaijan is committed to peace, and reaching a peace agreement as soon as possible is in our national interest.  I’m very grateful to the United States, and personally to the Secretary for his efforts in this direction.

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  Thanks, everyone.