Azerbaijan’s role in the preservation of inter-religious relations was hailed as Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has met with a delegation led by President of the US-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding Marc Schneier.

Rabbi Marc Schneier hailed his meeting with President Ilham Aliyev and said that the meeting featured very fruitful discussions.

The delegation pointed to the meeting with different religious communities as part of their visit to Azerbaijan, which created them an opportunity to get acquainted with the conditions created for these communities. They also highly appreciated the exchange of views on the sidelines of the international conference titled "Inter-religious and inter-civilization dialogue through cooperation" organized jointly by the State Committee on Religious Associations and the Caucasus Muslims Office.

The representatives of the US-based Evangelical Christian communities, the delegation include, underlined the importance that Azerbaijan attaches to tolerance and preservation of inter-religious relations, as well as the peaceful coexistence of representatives of various religious communities. They emphasized that Azerbaijan can serve as a model country in this regard.

Minister Elmar Mammadyarov expressed his gratitude for the warm words and noted that tolerance and multiculturalism is a state policy and a tradition of the Azerbaijani people preserved for centuries.

FM Mammadyarov provided an insight into the current negotiation process of the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with the mediation of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and referring to the recent statements of the Armenian leadership highlighted that such statements undermine the peace process. Minister Elmar Mammadyarov emphasized the importance of the solution of the conflict from the point of bringing peace, prosperity and sustainable development to the region.

The sides also discussed Azerbaijan-USA relations and other issues of mutual interest.