Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs James C. O’Brien will travel to Baku, Azerbaijan, and Dubrovnik, Croatia, June 27-29, US State Department press office reports. In Baku, Assistant Secretary O’Brien will meet with senior Azerbaijani government officials, including Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, to highlight progress in the U.S.-Azerbaijan bilateral relationship and U.S. support toward the conclusion of a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Assistant Secretary O’Brien will also meet with members of civil society to reiterate the urgency of Azerbaijan adhering to its international human rights commitments.
Assistant Secretary O’Brien will then travel to Dubrovnik, Croatia, to attend the Dubrovnik Forum and discuss the Western Balkans’ Euro-Atlantic integration with European partners and allies. In remarks to the forum, the Assistant Secretary will highlight U.S. support for unlocking the region’s reform potential. Assistant Secretary O’Brien will also meet with senior Croatian government officials to discuss defense cooperation, energy security, and other key priorities in the U.S.-Croatia bilateral relationship.
In that regard, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “We continue to engage in diplomacy to resolve a number of the outstanding issues in that region; that’s something we’ve been working on for some time. The assistant secretary regularly travels there”.
