Political Quotes

“First, the Senator was able to meet with the President of Azerbaijan. We thank him for that. He was able to adjust his calendar to do that and we appreciate it because it was very important to hear the message the Senator gave on the floor of the Senate. Azerbaijan is an important ally to the United States. They have issues they need to deal with on human rights. We were clear about that. We met with the NGO community while we were there. But I think the Senator's leadership and the way the Senator balanced that presentation was very important. There is also the energy issue with Azerbaijan that is very important to us in that region as an energy source for Europe. It is an important, strategic country. And, yes, they do have issues on human rights. We did meet with the NGOs and we will continue to voice those concerns. I am glad the Senator from Mississippi mentioned Chisinau and Moldova. We also on the way visited Georgia, and Georgia and Moldova have some common interests: They are both moving toward Europe with the association agreements. They recognize their economic and political future is with Europe and they both have Russian troops in their country, and they are both very much concerned about what is happening in Ukraine. We got tremendous interest about what we did in Baku on taking on the Russians directly about their violations of the OSCE principles in their activities in Ukraine. Moldova, as you know, is in the Transnistria area which borders the Ukraine.…”