Artur Rasizade
This was said by Prime Minister Artur Rasizade on Tuesday in his report to the Milli Majlis on socioeconomic development in 2009.
'The Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh remains unresolved, 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory is still occupied. In this regard, our government has to pay great attention to the development of its defence and defence industry,' he said.
'Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has repeatedly said Azerbaijan will not agree to recognize the independence of Nagorno-Karabakh in either five or 100 years. According to the president, we are making every effort for the peaceful settlement of the conflict, but if negotiations do not lead to the liberation of occupied Azerbaijani territories, we can undertake a military solution to the problem,' Rasizade said.
The president described the decision to establish of the Ministry of the Defence Industry as the 'right one'.
'Over $500m has been allocated to the defence industry since the ministry was set up. Today, Azerbaijan has established production of more than 350 military and defence products. Azerbaijan has signed agreements on military and military-industrial cooperation with 28 countries of the world,' the prime minister said.
'The unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the state of war require us to take external challenges and risks seriously,' Artur Rasizade said.
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