Official Baku is going to further tightening relations with the West. It can be regarded as a decision to close the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE in Baku. According to well-informed diplomatic sources, the corresponding letter was sent to the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry on June 3 in the head office of the OSCE in Vienna. "The government of Azerbaijan has reported that there is no need for more activities of the OSCE Project Co-ordinator in Baku. Therefore, the Government of Azerbaijan considers it null and void from the June 4, 2015 the action "of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Azerbaijan and the OSCE on the OSCE Project Coordinator in Baku", signed September 24, 2014. The government provides the OSCE month to complete the technical issues that arise in such a situation," said in the letter. On June 5 the OSCE Secretary General Lamberto Zannier informed OSCE member states about the decision of the official Baku.
Any comments from the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry and other structures have been reported yet.
It should be noted that two years ago Baku lowed the level of the OSCE, which has been downgraded to the embassy to the OSCE Project Coordinator.
The current dramatic step, apparently, was the reaction of Baku to review the current coordinator Alexis Shakhtakhtinsky, whom the OSCE accused of ignoring the problems of civil society in Azerbaijan, and too close links with the country's leadership. Thus, Baku made it clear it does not want coming of truly independent representatives of the OSCE.
It is hard to predict what will be the consequences of this unprecedented step, but it is obvious that Baku provokes aggravation of relations with the West.
It is noteworthy that the government of Azerbaijan has time to solve technical issues after the closure of the OSCE office until July 4 – the US Independence Day. As is well known, the activity by Shakhtakhtinsky has been heavily criticized in America by representative of the OSCE. -06D-
Politics
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On the eve of the closing of the COP29 climate conference in Baku, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has drawn attention to the criminal cases of journalists detained in Azerbaijan.
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Negotiations at the 29th session of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku have been extended until November 24, a source in the UNFCCC Secretariat told the Turan news agency. According to the source, participants aim to finalize and sign the concluding documents by that date.
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