According to reports, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O’Brien stated to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, that the United States wants to ensure that items exported from Central Asia go through routes that exclude Russia and China. One such route is through Azerbaijan.
“This applies to the entire Central Asian region; all of these countries’ exports to world markets currently go through China and Russia. For a workaround, they need to cooperate with Azerbaijan,” commented O’Brien, regarding goals of his upcoming trip to Baku.
“One route goes through Georgia to the Black Sea, but another, potentially larger, would go through Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey.” In order to orchestrate such, the diplomat explained, “we need a peace agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia.”
O’Brien added that the U.S. supports the conclusion of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
