French President Nicolas Sarkozy met with Azerbaijani President Ýlham Aliyev in Paris on Wednesday.
In a written statement, the French presidency said the leaders had agreed to expand bilateral relations and trade volume between the two countries and expressed their wish to develop a “strategic partnership.”
France said it wants to develop economic relations with Azerbaijan, including those in the field of energy, such as oil and natural gas.
The topic of Nagorno-Karabakh was also discussed. The Azerbaijani region has been the cause of deteriorating relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan since the beginning of the 1990s. Ethnic Armenian forces backed by Yerevan seized control of the region and seven surrounding districts in an early-1990s war that claimed an estimated 30,000 lives. Talks to resolve the conflict continue.
Aliyev met with his Armenian counterpart Serge Sarkisian in Germany on Nov. 22, 2009, for a sixth round of talks this year on resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. International mediators said “progress was made,” but that “some issues still remain open.”
The French presidency’s statement refrained from giving any details about what Aliyev and Sarkozy discussed on this issue.
France is a member of the Organization for Security and
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