Dear Mr. President,

It is on the occasion of the 4th of July – Independence Day that on my own behalf and on behalf of the people of Azerbaijan, I cordially congratulate you, and through you, the friendly people of the United States of America, and offer my best wishes.

For 30 years, the Republic of Azerbaijan and the United States of America have shared the ties of friendship and partnership. We have highly appreciated the support by the U.S. for our country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity from day one.

The mutually beneficial cooperation between our countries continues successfully in a bilateral and multilateral format. Our years-long engagement in ensuring international security and combatting terrorism is gratifying. Among the primary factors of our success are our countries’ close cooperation on energy matters and enduring involvement and comprehensive support by the U.S. for the large-scale transnational projects we implemented.

Today cooperation between Azerbaijan and the U.S. has ascended to the level of strategic partnership in certain critical spheres and enabled our political ties to expand. Cooperation between our countries on energy, security and combatting international terrorism is exemplary.

We believe that at a time when a favorable atmosphere for lasting peace and economic progress has emerged in the South Caucasus, the U.S. could play a critical role in normalizing Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, opening communications and establishing people-to-people contacts. In the meantime, we understand that the U.S. could make a valuable contribution to the process of preparing a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan based on five basic principles submitted by us.

The landmines planted by Armenia across our liberated territories remain a formidable impediment to our restoration and reconstruction efforts. We commend the assistance extended by the U.S. to our country for the demining works. We also have great hopes for your country’s support in clarifying the fate of nearly 4000 of our fellow citizens who had gone missing in the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict.

Dear Mr. President,

I am confident that through our joint efforts, the friendly and mutually beneficial cooperative relations that connect Azerbaijan and the United States will continue to advance and expand in line with the interests of our peoples.

On this joyful day, I seize this opportunity to wish robust health and success to you and everlasting prosperity to the friendly people of the United States of America.

Sincerely,

Ilham Aliyev

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan

Baku, 4 July 2022