Washington hosts conference on "Development of U.S. strategy in South Caucasus and Caspian Basin"

Azerbaijani MP, Democratic Reforms Party chairman Asim Mollazade participated in the conference from the Azerbaijani side. Such experts, as Ariel Cohen, Frederick Starr, Alexandros Petersen, Stephen Blank, Janusz Bugajski, Ghia Nodia, Tuncay Babali and others attended the event.

The significance of the South Caucasus and the Caspian basin for the U.S. were mainly discussed at the conference. Heritage Foundation leading expert on Russia, Eurasia and international energy security Ariel Cohen said that now the United States are less represented in the South Caucasus, giving place to other countries.

"As for Georgia, we see that the countries of the Persian Gulf are represented there. There are mainly Turkey and Russia with their energy cooperation in Azerbaijan. The situation with Armenia is a little more complicated in the context of the ongoing conflict. But if we are not represented in this country, there will be someone else," Cohen said.

Speaking about the future of the Caucasus, one can say that the region will play a key role in energy transit from the eastern Caspian coast, Cohen said.

"The current U.S. administration must understand that while solving the problem with Afghanistan and Iran, it is also necessary to hold regional and bilateral policy with the Caucasus", Cohen said. He said that the U.S. administration must send the people, who have worked there and who are familiar with the region, to the South Caucasus.

Washington must specify the intentions and plans for the region for the successful continuation of the partnership between the U.S. and Azerbaijan, Asim Mollazade said.

"Recently, there is no U.S. presence in the South Caucasus and the Caspian Basin. Moreover, a number of negative trends, emanating from Washington, including the desire for a hypothetical rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia, instead of a real peace in the region, began to arouse the questions about the role of the United States for the South Caucasus from the Azerbaijani side", Mollazade said.

The Atlantic Council researcher in Washington Alexandros Petersen said that now the U.S. position in the South Caucasus is the weakest one after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "The plans for the opening of Turkish-Armenian border have alienated Azerbaijan from the U.S., and deteriorated U.S relations with Armenia and Turkey", Petersen said.

He said that the U.S. must seriously change its strategy towards the region. In particular, the relations with the countries of the region must be established in accordance with U.S. interests with regard to each of their countries to achieve a positive change in the situation.

"The U.S must demonstrate its presence through diplomatic, economic, cultural channels. Shortly, they must abandon attempts to approach the South Caucasus and the Caspian region as to the range of someone's special interests", the expert said.

In his turn, U.S Army War College professor Stephen Blank connected the U.S strategic failure in the region with the fact that Washington pays insufficient attention to issues of regional security. "The U.S., considering transnational threats as a priority, must not ignore the regional threats. The U.S must try to resolve the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, which is the main knot of the South Caucasus", Blank said.

He said that there is a direct dependence between the opening of Turkish-Armenian border and the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict. "To separate them is not the U.S. national interests. The country must not view Azerbaijan as a state that helps it in Afghanistan. The U.S. must realize the importance of Azerbaijan", Blank said.


/Trend/