The last 10 days were quite a busy period for US-Azerbaijan relations. The US Secretary of State Coordinator for energy affairs and the US co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group visited Baku. Including my own visit here, I would say I had frank meetings with President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov.

Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affair, Victoria Nuland, made the above statement with regards to the results of her visit to Azerbaijan, APA reports.

Nuland said she held meetings with representatives of Azerbaijan’s civic society.

"At all the meetings, we conveyed the same message that the US welcomes the cooperation it has build with Azerbaijan over a period of more than 20 years. We want  to see an independent and democratic Azerbaijan, and to continue the relations built between the two countries 20 years ago. I’ve traveling to Baku since 1993. The two countries cooperate in the three areas – security, economy-energy and democracy. We have jointly fought against terrorism and extremism in Afghanistan and Kosova,” the US official underlined.

The assistant secretary said she arrived in Azerbaijan together with regional representatives of the US Department of Defense and European Command.

"Discussions are underway on joint exercises, training and strengthening of peacekeeping forces,” Nuland noted.