Azerbaijani president's visit to Switzerland is chance to make country better known: ambassador

President Aliyev headed to Bern for an official visit on Oct. 18.

The ambassador said Switzerland is mainly interested in having Azerbaijan as one of its major partners in terms of energy cooperation. In a broader economic field Switzerland is one of the most important countries for Azerbaijan in terms of direct foreign investment into the non-energy related sector, the diplomat said.

A second item in a political dialogue will become the role that Switzerland has been playing in the South Caucasus recently.

"Switzerland has overtaken representative functions between Georgia and Russia and also trying to play a more active role in bringing Turkey and Armenia closer together. There is also its interest in a peaceful resolution of all unresolved conflicts in the region of the South Caucasus, including the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan," Amirbayov said.

Azerbaijan's ambassador to Switzerland Elchin Amirbayov told swissinfo.ch that President Aliyev's visit is a chance to make his country better known.

Along with his Swiss counterpart, Hans-Rudolf Merz, the Azerbaijani President will be attending the inaugural concert of a series of Azerbaijani cultural events to be held all over Switzerland in the next six weeks, the ambassador said.

Amirbayov said Switzerland has a long tradition of democratic development. "We started this only in 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and if you take into account the fact that immediately after that we were burdened with this difficult unresolved caseload of occupation, and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, you'll realise that the security issue and the existential issue was a priority," Amirbayov said.

He said Azerbaijan became member of the Council of Europe in 2001 and  quite a long way has been covered in trying to establish a basis for political reform, to establish a basis for civil society and democratic norms and principles.

"Of course the experience of Switzerland which has several centuries of this development is useful to us," the diplomat said.

/Trend News/