President Ilham Aliyev, talking at a press convention alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, confirmed that former Russian and German officers will journey to Azerbaijan in mid-July for a attainable assembly to debate Russia’s ongoing all-out warfare in opposition to Ukraine.
Aliyev mentioned Baku was unaware of the event till after the actual fact.
Aliyev mentioned that “airmail statistics present proof to recommend that such a secret assembly was held in Baku,” however that Azerbaijan “has not acquired any details about this from Germany or from Russia.”
“Our territory was merely exploited with out our data,” he defined.
“If this assembly will assist finish the Ukraine-Russia warfare, then after all we welcome it,” Aliyev mentioned subsequent to Merz.
Azerbaijan’s president mentioned he had instructed the nation’s Nationwide Border Company to research following media stories concerning the attainable talks.
“We want to inform you that this info has been confirmed,” he defined, citing former German and Russian officers concerned within the Baku negotiations.
“On July 12, two outstanding folks, one in every of whom is claimed to have served as Chancellor Merkel’s chief of employees, Mr. Pofala and Mr. Platzek, arrived in Baku on a Berlin-Baku flight, and returned to Berlin from Baku on July 14,” Aliyev mentioned.
Ronald Pofala served as Head of the Federal Chancellery and Particular Minister below Angela Merkel’s authorities from 2009 to 2013, and later turned CEO of Deutsche Bahn’s infrastructure division.
He later served as co-chair of the Petersburg Dialogue. The Petersburg Dialogue is a semi-official German-Russian discussion board that Germany suspended in 2021 following Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine.
Since then, he has maintained unofficial contacts with Russian politicians and has been named by the Occasions as a attainable unofficial middleman between Berlin and Moscow.
Matthias Platzek is a former Minister of the Social Democratic Get together and President of the State of Brandenburg, in addition to a former chairman of the Discussion board for Russo-German Cooperation, and has lengthy been concerned ready inside the SPD that promotes nearer ties between Germany and Russia.
“On the identical time, on July 12, former Russian Prime Minister Mr. Zubkov and Chairman of the Presidential Council of Russian Civil Society Mr. Fadeyev arrived in Baku from Moscow,” it added. “One left Baku on July thirteenth, and the opposite on July 14th.”
Viktor Zubkov served as Prime Minister of Russia from September 2007 to Might 2008 below President Vladimir Putin, and at present serves as chairman of the board of Russian state-owned gasoline big Gazprom.
Mr. Zubkov’s long-standing relationship with President Putin dates again to the times when the Russian president was mayor of St. Petersburg, when Mr. Zubkov was deputy head of town’s exterior relations committee.
Valery Fadeev has been the Chairman of the Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights since 2019. The company, which advises President Putin, can be utilized in quite a lot of diplomatic and backchannel contexts. Each are thought-about trusted allies of President Putin.
Merz advised a information convention in Berlin that he had no details about the alleged Baku assembly, including: “Now we have been persuading President Putin to start out negotiations for months.” In accordance with Merz, the Russian president refused.
“It is as much as the Russian authorities and the Russian president to finish this warfare,” Merz mentioned. “It is as much as the president to enter into negotiations and, if vital, begin peace negotiations.”
“He continues to refuse to take action,” the German chancellor added.
“We’re very grateful to President Aliyev for sharing the same place with us concerning that warfare, its causes, course and attainable final result,” Merz concluded.
The President of Azerbaijan reiterated his place that “the warfare should cease instantly.”
“Our predominant aim is to finish this warfare and guarantee peace within the area,” Aliyev mentioned.
