The foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey have pledged to further cooperation in a declaration signed in the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan. The ministers - Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan, Ali Akbar Salehi of Iran and Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey - first held one-to-one talks in Nakhchivan and then met together on Wednesday. In the declaration, adopted at the end of their talks, the ministers express their backing for furtherdiscussions of important regional and international issues and welcome Azerbaijan?s election as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, APA reported. They stress the the importance of solving the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh with respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law. The ministers agree in the declaration to hold meetings of subcommittees on different areas of cooperation. A subcommittee on trade, industry and investment will meet in Turkey in May, a subcommittee on transport will meet in Azerbaijan in June, a subcommittee on energy will meet in Iran in September and a subcommittee on tourism and culture will meet in Iran in October. The ministers note the potential to link the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway to the Nakhchivan-Julfa-Tabriz railway, two routes currently under construction. The declaration also contains a pledge to consider easing the visa regime. 'Very good, informative' meeting Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov described the meeting as very important and effective for all three countries. "It was a very good meeting, informative," he told a press conference with the two other ministers."We covered global issues and signed the trilateral declaration." Meetings in the same trilateral format will be held by the countries' ministers of tourism and by other ministers too, Mammadyarov said. The next meeting of the three foreign ministers will be held in the city of Van in eastern Turkey in September. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told the press conference that today's meeting had a positive effect on regional relations. "Turkey, Azerbaijan and Iran have already taken significant steps towards deepening relations. A separate meeting of businessmen from the three countries is planned alongside the meeting of ministers in Van. Customs procedures will be reviewed here as well," Davutoglu said. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said that the three countries were linked by history. "We are three states, three bodies with one spirit. This is, of course, reflected in the agreements among all three countries. We will continue our consultations on a regular basis," he told the press conference. The Iranian minister said that the three countries had a combined population of more than 170 million which created a big market.

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