The Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights, Tom Malinowski postpones the upcoming visit to Azerbaijan.
During the visit of the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland in Baku in February, Nuland said, the two countries agreed to create a U.S.-Azerbaijan dialogue on civil society and democracy.
Announcing this decision at the press conference, Nuland added, "This would be a U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral structure that would work in parallel with the work that Azerbaijan is currently doing with the Council of Europe and Secretary General Jagland. I think it will allow us to work through some of the issues to talk really candidly as I was able to do with the president today and I appreciate that about the human rights situation, about the media situation, about strengthening ngos."
However, according to Turan news, the scheduled meeting for May was postponed. Speaking to Turan's correspondent the State Department official said, "While the US and Azerbaijan agreed to hold such a dialogue during [Assistant Secretary] Victoria Nuland's visit to Baku, we simply don't believe that such a dialogue would be productive right now given the current climate. That's our judgement, and our decision".
The State Department official also refuted statements that it was Azerbaijan who prevented the upcoming visit.
