NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg arrived in Baku in Sunday (17 March) at the start of a three-day, tri-nation tour of the South Caucasus. Meeting with President Ilham Aliyev, the Secretary-General welcomed Azerbaijan’s long-standing collaboration with the Alliance, saying he looked forward to further strengthening the partnership.
Mr Stoltenberg welcomed the opportunity to discuss energy security, saying: “energy matters for our security and I welcome that Azerbaijan is developing closer and closer ties with several NATO Allies.” He further pointed to a track record of work on issues of mutual concern and thanked Azerbaijan for its contributions to NATO-led operations and missions – including in Kosovo and Afghanistan – since Azerbaijan joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace in 1994. The Alliance and Baku have also cooperated through NATO’s Science for Peace and Security programme on counter-terrorism and cyber security.
On the situation in the South Caucasus, the Secretary-General underlined that “peace and stability is not only important here but for security more broadly”. He said: “Armenia and Azerbaijan now have an opportunity to achieve an enduring peace after years of conflict.” He added: “I can just encourage you to seize this opportunity to reach a lasting peace agreement with Armenia”. On Ukraine, Mr Stoltenberg welcomed the much-needed support provided by Azerbaijan, and called on all countries in the region to step up: “more support is needed because the situation in Ukraine is extremely difficult.”
The Secretary-General 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.”
On Monday, the Secretary-General will meet Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Defence Minister Colonel-General Zakir Hasanov. He will then travel to Tbilisi for meetings with Georgia’s leadership. On Tuesday, Mr Stoltenberg will meet with Armenia’s leadership in Yerevan
