Clinton plans 5-day, 5-country tour with stops in Yerevan and Baku

by Emil Sanamyan

Published: Friday June 25, 2010

Hillary Clinton on Feb. 26. State Dept.

Washington - At the end of next week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will "travel to Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia, where she will hold meetings with government officials and civil society leaders to discuss bilateral, as well as regional peace and stability issues," State Department spokesman announced on June 25.

The Caucasus visits will be preceded by stops in Ukraine and Poland, making the July 1-5 trip a five-day five-country dash.

When asked about the visit's purpose, State Department's Philip Crowley noted that U.S. "invested a great deal of energy in normalized relations among Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan."

"In this particular trip, the Secretary will have the opportunity to visit two of those countries and we will further the discussions that we've had with Azerbaijan and Armenia, I think most recently on the margins of the nuclear security summit."

Last Secretary of State to visit both Armenia and Azerbaijan was Jim Baker in February 1992. In September 2008, Vice President Dick Cheney became the most senior U.S. official to visit Azerbaijan, and before that President George W. Bush visited Georgia.