Secretary of the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission Gianni Buquicchio will visit Azerbaijan on July 14, Secretariat of the Venice Commission told APA European bureau.

Gaz de France is still keen to acquire a stake in the prospective Nabucco pipeline to deliver gas from Central Asia to Europe, the company’s chairman said Tuesday.

Georgian military units began to evacuate civilians from the residential areas in the Georgia-Abkhazia conflict zone.

“We will take preventive measures, if the United States and Israel attack Iran”, said Ali Shirazi, representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader to the naval unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, APA reports.

High-level representatives of the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations met on 7 July 2008 in Strasbourg for their annual consultations in the “Tripartite-Plus” format. The participating organizations discussed different aspects of intercultural dialogue and their collaboration in this area, particularly the role of human rights, the promotion of intercultural competences through education as well as the link between intercultural dialogue and conflict prevention. Addressing the meeting, General Secretary of the Council of Europe Terry Davis said intercultural dialogue demanded attention, creativeness and open mind. The next meeting will be held in 2009 on the UN initiative.

“Russia is ready to cooperate with Azerbaijan in various spheres, as well as in military sphere”, said Vasili Istratov, Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, APA reports. Estimating the Azerbaijan’s efforts to integrate into NATO, the ambassador said every country was independent to make decision on its security. “Moscow also has a right to determine independently what impact has the integration of any country into the military-political blocks on the Russia’s security”.

Azerbaijan and Russia will begin negotiations to define terms of energy cooperation in the next few days, said Vasili Istratov, Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan at the press-conference on Tuesday in Baku, APA reports.