NOURNEWS- Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met and talked with Ilham Aliyev the president of Azerbaijan, on the sidelines of his trip to Baku to attend the Ministerial Meeting of Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau.
The relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan are formed on the basis of a set of cultural, historical, and religious points of commonality, as well as very important economic and political capacities derived from the geographical location of the two countries and both of the neighboring countries have strong infrastructures.
It is very clear that the energy of convergence, cooperation and all-round development of relations between the two sides, provided that the influence of secondary components is eliminated, is much greater than divergence or even slowness in relations.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in the framework of pursuing a central and stable strategy in its foreign policy, has always considered the logic of dialogue and interaction in its relations with its neighbors, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, and despite the ups and downs that have sometimes affected its relations with its neighbors, all of its efforts are being used in order to not to derail understanding in regional and relations with neighboring countries.
Since, for the reasons mentioned, the Republic of Azerbaijan has always had an important position in Iran's foreign relations and policies toward neighboring countries, an all-out effort to maintain and improve relations with Baku had never been out of Iran's diplomatic priorities.
Admiral Ali Shamkhani's trip to Baku and his meeting with President Ilham Aliyev and other high officials of this country in last July should be considered as a very important turning point in the bilateral relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.
This trip was made in the circumstances, such as after the developments of the Nagorno-Karabakh War and the creation of some misunderstandings between the two countries, the relations between Tehran and Baku were not in an acceptable condition due to the overt conduct of the third parties.
During Shamkhani's visit to Baku and during his two-hour private meeting with Aliyev, a set of considerations, concerns and security, political and economic approaches of the two countries were discussed in bilateral and regional dimensions, and with having this framework on their minds, agreements were made to resolve the existing obstacles and speeding up the development of bilateral relations and accelerating the implementation of current plans.
In continuation of the same path, the high military, political and economic officials of the two countries made effective efforts to follow up the usual agreements by making mutual trips and continuous consultations, which also sought good results.
In this framework, the media atmosphere of the two countries towards each other, which was somewhat darkened due to the created misunderstandings, returned to a relatively calm state, which indicated the determination of the parties to manage unwanted challenges.
After the attack of an armed person on the embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Tehran last winter, which took place with personal motives and caused the death of one of the employees of the embassy, the relations between the two countries entered a new phase of tension and mutual political measures were taken by the two countries against the offices and Citizens looked out for each other.
The recent meeting between Amir-Abdollahian and Aliyev in the current situation should be considered as a new attempt by Tehran and Baku to overcome the unwanted circumstances.
The President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, while emphasizing the expansion of relations between the two countries in the framework of bilateral relations and the Non-Aligned Movement, expressed hope that the perpetrators of the action against the Azerbaijani Embassy in Tehran will be punished appropriately.
In any case, everything that has happened during the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran to Baku and his meeting with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan can be seen as the continuation of constructive interactions between the two countries after the visit of the then Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran to Baku last year, which expresses the will of the two countries to improve relations are far from being influenced by external factors. A process that, along with bilateral relations, is an action in the direction of using regional capacities to end the Caucasus crisis and confront the movements of ill-wishers who have their interests in creating a gap between the countries of the region and developing insecurity.
Fortunately, all the countries of the West Asia have come to believe that imported security cannot provide their long-term interests and the only way to achieve stability and sustainable security is the responsible cooperation of the countries of the region.
BY: Mohammad Ghaderi
NOURNEWS