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 talks with senior Azerbaijani officials 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.
Simmons also said NATO was closely watching the Nagorny Karabakh settlement talks, led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and expected a breakthrough in 2006.
Speaking about the possibility of deploying 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.
