Azernews.Az

The Black Sea Trust established by the German Marshall Fund of the United States (GMF) intends to operate in Azerbaijan, the group`s senior director for Wider Europe said.
Peter Van Praagh said in a meeting with Vice-Speaker of the Milli Majlis (Azerbaijani parliament) Bahar Muradova that the key goal was to step up the work of local non-governmental organizations, expand their international relations and conduct exchange of experience.
Praagh emphasized that civil society institutions were developing in Azerbaijan.
"We plan to arrange in the near future visits by high-ranking representatives of American and European countries to the region. The objective here is to obtain more comprehensive information about Azerbaijan, whose economy is developing and which possesses considerable energy resources."
Muradova, for her part, said Azerbaijan represented interest both for Europe and the U.S. She said Baku was capable of making a contribution to the solution of problems in the world.
"Azerbaijan could also act as a leading state in the realization of world [countries`] interests in the region," Muradova said.
Speaking of the favorable conditions provided for the development of civil society in the country, the vice-speaker said other CIS states and Eastern European nations would benefit from capitalizing on the experience gained by her country in this area.