BAKU, November 18 (RIA Novosti, Geray Dadashev) - A senior NATO official said Friday that Azerbaijan's accession was not on the trans-Atlantic alliance's current agenda.
Robert Simmons, NATO's Special Representative for the Caucasus and Central Asia, told reporters after a session of the NATO-Azerbaijan task force in the capital of Baku that the alliance would consider the possibility of Azerbaijan's accession if the country applied for membership. But the issue has not been discussed just yet, he added.
Azerbaijani Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said Azerbaijan was approaching the issue of NATO accession from the standpoint of its strategic, not short-term, interests and that the country should work toward membership as the ultimate goal of its integration into NATO.
He said Azerbaijan was pleased with how its military and political cooperation with NATO was developing and was hopeful that it would deepen with time.
Simmons said he was satisfied with the progress in implementing the NATO-Azerbaijan Individual Partnership Action Plan (IPAP). One of IPAP's goals is to reform Azerbaijan's defense system, including by optimizing human resources and defense spending.
Simmons expressed his support for NATO's decision to help Azerbaijan clear its territory of unexploded mines by allocating more than 1 million euros in aid. The corresponding agreement was signed in Baku Friday.
Another welcomed initiative is a joint project to dispense of Azerbaijan's Soviet-era missile fuel, set to begin in 2006.
Simmons said NATO was closely watching the Nagorny Karabakh settlement talks led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Speaking about the possibility of stationing NATO peacekeepers in Nagorny Karabakh, an area of long-standing dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Simmons said the bloc might deploy a peacekeeping contingent and a monitoring group if it was asked to do so by the conflicting sides.
