Baku, February 17, AZERTAC “Azerbaijan is a reliable partner of Italy,” said Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Angelino Alfano as he met with Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.The ministers hailed the close cooperation between Azerbaijan and Italy in a number of areas and stressed the importance of high-level reciprocal visits in terms of deepening relations. Italian Minister Angelino Alfano described Azerbaijan as a reliable partner, saying his country attaches great importance to cooperation with Azerbaijan. Noting that Italy is one of the most important partners of Azerbaijan in the European Union, Elmar Mammadyarov expressed Azerbaijan’s interest in developing the cooperation with Italy. The sides stressed the strategic importance of energy cooperation between the two countries, including the Southern Gas Corridor, TANAP and TAP projects. The Italian foreign minister underlined the importance of the TAP project in diversifying gas supplies and ensuring energy security of the country. He praised the outcomes of the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Southern Gas Corridor (SGC) Advisory Council held in Baku on February 15.FM Mammadyarov briefed the Italian minister on the North-South and East-West transport corridors, as well as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway and underlined the importance of developing cooperation in this area. Emphasizing that Italy has recently assumed the OSCE chairmanship in 2018, FM Mammadyarov hailed the fact of including the issue of settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict via the mediation and efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group as one of the priorities for Italy as the OSCE Chairman-in-Office for 2018.Highlighting the recent negotiation process on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Mammadyarov stressed that in accordance with relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council and the OSCE documents, which constitute the basis for resolution of the conflict, Armenian troops should be immediately, completely and unconditionally withdrawn from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan.The sides also exchanged views on cooperation within the European Union and regional issues of mutual interest.