By empty (10/17/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Up to ten bilateral documents are expected to be signed during the official visit to Belarus by Azerbaijan\'s President Ilkham Aliyev, which begins on Tuesday, Novruz Mamedov, public relations chief with the administration of the Azerbaijani leader told Itar-Tass. \"The key document, to be signed in Minsk by Presidents Ilkham Aliyev and Alexander Lukashenko, is the friendship and cooperation treaty between Azerbaijan and Belarus,\" Mamedov said. \"It\'s a framework document expected, to firm the legal groundwork of bilateral relations,\" he noted.

By empty (10/16/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

During a meeting in New York, the UN Security Council adopted on October 13 a resolution extending the mandate of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG) by another six months, until April 15, 2007, and calling on Georgia to exercise restraint in the wake of a crisis in relations with Russia. The Russian-sponsored resolution stated that the \"new and tense\" situation resulted in part from the July Georgian military operation in the upper Kodori Gorge and urged Tbilisi to ensure that no military forces not authorized by the 1994 cease-fire agreement be deployed to the area. The resolution also reiterated that Georgia \"address seriously legitimate Abkhaz security concerns\" and called on Georgian leaders to avoid militant rhetoric or provocative actions.

By empty (10/16/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A team of international experts led by the OSCE concluded on October 12 a fact-finding mission along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border to investigate the causes of massive wildfires reported in Armenian-controlled territories of Azerbaijan in recent months, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. The weeklong mission was conducted in accordance with a September 7 resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly that expressed \"serious concern\"over the reported fires but stopped short of supporting Azerbaijani allegations that the fires were deliberately started by the Armenians. The OSCE mission is due to submit its formal assessment to the UN General Assembly by April 2007.