BAKU:
Azerbaijan has refused to extend the cooperation agreement, accusing the US Agency for International Development (USAID) of fulfilling a political agenda.
According to a report by the foreign news agency Reuters, during a press conference with his Georgian counterpart in the capital Baku, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jehan Bayramov said that the extension of the cooperation agreement with USAID has been refused.
He said that cooperation with USAID was suspended in June 2024.
The report said that Azerbaijani authorities began criticizing USAID in late 2023 when the agency’s head, Samantha Power, made accusations against the Azerbaijani military in a statement.
He alleged that the Azerbaijani army's operations in Nagorno-Karabakh had forced thousands of people to flee their homes and migrate to Armenia.
Hekmat Hajiyev, foreign policy advisor to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, responded to the USAID head's statement by saying that USAID has no place in Azerbaijan.
USAID, as a subsidiary of the US government, runs development and humanitarian cooperation projects in all partner countries and claims that USAID's efforts are made to promote democracy, democratic values, freedom, peace, and stability in the world, which are made possible by US foreign policy support.
Before Azerbaijan, USAID activities were also suspended in Russia in 2012, and in 2023, the Russian-backed Georgian region of Abkhazia also announced its withdrawal from USAID projects.
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