Azernews.Az

Azerbaijan will continue cooperating with the U.S regardless of the results of the presidential elections, head of social and political affairs at the Presidential Administration, Ali Hasanov, told media on Tuesday.

The 57-th U.S. presidential elections starts on Tuesday, November 6, and after the voting, the board of electors will name the U.S new President and Vice President.

The newly-elected president will be inaugurated on January 20, 2013.

Incumbent President Barack Obama was nominated as a candidate from the Democratic Party for the second term. Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is a candidate from the Republican party.

"The two countries are strategic partners," Hasanov said. "They cooperate in many spheres, in particular, in international peacekeeping operations. Azerbaijan is operating with the U.S in many hot spots, and both countries jointly combat international terrorism."

Hasanov said that Azerbaijan and the U.S. are seriously cooperating in implementing the transnational projects in the energy field and ensuring the energy security of Europe, as well as the democratic development, freedom of speech, media, establishing the civil society and other issues of domestic policy.

"I think that these relations and cooperation will continue regardless of the results of the presidential elections in the U.S.," he said. "We wish both candidates to see the benefits of their ongoing campaigns. Only one of the two candidates will be elected, and the U.S people will make their choice regardless of our desire."

Hasanov also noted that Azerbaijan is closely following the current processes in the U.S., which co-chairs the OSCE Minsk Group brokering settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Regardless of the individual to be elected as the next president, we want the U.S to pay more attention to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, to demonstrate the will to change the status quo and force Armenia to the peace process on the basis of mutual compromises," Hasanov said.

Otherwise, the conflict would be impossible to resolve, he believes.

"The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen must demonstrate the will to force Armenia to constructive cooperation... Azerbaijan is looking forward to this," Hasanov noted.