Here's a bit of the banter between U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov before their meeting in Washington D.C. on June 3.

Secretary Clinton: Well, good afternoon. It's a real pleasure for me to welcome my colleague here in Washington once again. The minister and I have had the great opportunity of meeting on numerous occasions in the last two-plus years of the Obama Administration, and I just want to underscore the strategic importance of the relationship between the United States and Azerbaijan and the range of issues that we are working on together – bilateral issues, regional issues, even global issues. We are very committed to broadening and deepening our relationship and we are also committed to continuing to work through the Minsk Group to try to resolve the longstanding conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.

So we will have a lot to talk about this afternoon, but it is a pleasure to see you once again.

Foreign Minister Mammadyarov: Thank you very much, Madam Secretary. You said whole agenda – (laughter) – now I just want to add that I am totally subscribed to it, and I believe that the relations between Azerbaijan and the United States is developing quite well. I'll just mention that the nature of it is a strategic one. Of course, we need to even more deepening and strengthening our cooperation. Thank you very much for all the words of trying to bring more peace and stability to the region, particularly the resolution of Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh problem. There was a recent statement by the presidents which I believe also helpful from the point of view that this unresolved conflict is on the screen of the international community.

Secretary Clinton: Indeed.

FM Mammadyarov: And we all together have to work harder to make a breakthrough.

Secretary Clinton: Thank you. Thank you, Elmar.

FM Mammadyarov: Thank you very much.

Secretary Clinton: Thank you very much. Thank you all.