On 26 July chairman of the Party of Democratic Reforms (PDR), member of the Azerbaijan’s Parliamentary delegation to PACE Asim Mollazade held a news conference on the results of his visit to the USA.
During the US visit on 15-24 July, Mollazade held meetings at the White House, the State Department, the Congress, the Pentagon, the Enterprise Institutions, the Carnegy Foundation and etc., Trend reports.
The PDR chairman spoke of the pre-election situation in Azerbaijan, goals and the program of the party headed by him, exchanged opinions on the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. He underlined the role of ensuring development and stability in Azerbaijan by holding free and democratic elections.
At the Pentagon he met with the USA deputy Defense Minister, as well as with the head of the Department on Euro-Asian policy and the international security Jim MacDugal, with whom the issues of security in the South Caucasus and Central Asian regions were discussed.
At the White House Mollazade met with the head of the Euro-Asian Department of the National Security Council David Merkel, with whom he discussed the pre-election situation in Azerbaijan. At the meetings with the deputy State Secretary Met Brize and the chief coordinator on democracy and human rights of the State Department Gretchen Birkom he exchanged opinions on processes in Azerbaijan and in the region and the forthcoming elections to the Parliament.
Mollazade also met with a number of congressmen and leaders of international institutions and projects.
During his meeting with the congressman from Indiana Den Barton, PDR chairman thanked him for his support of the Council of Europe resolution on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. At the meeting with the US congressman Eliot Angle from the New-York state they discussed the forthcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan and the American-Azerbaijani ties.
The subject of meetings by Mollazade with the OSCE commission members at the Congress was the Minsk group activities on peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The PDR chairman met with the chair of the human rights commission Tom Lantos and the head of the European subcommittee on possible threats Richard Mero.
Mollazade had also meetings at the International Institutes of Republicans and the National Democracy, where the issues of holding necessary reforms for ensuring democratic forthcoming parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan were discussed. Mollazade appreciated highly the activities of the Institutes in Azerbaijan.
With the program director of the Institute of the National Democracy Nelson Ledski and director of the project of the transnational democracy Bruce Jackson, Mollazade discussed the issue of the upcoming elections in Azerbaijan and the country’s integration in the Euro-Atlantic Alliance.
Asim Mollazade held also meetings with the representatives of the US influential media. On the whole he underlined, that his visit was successful, fruitful and of a large significance.