Nearly 7,000 miles separate New Mexico and the former Soviet republic of Azerbaijan. But the distance between the two belies an increasing political coziness – one cultivated by dinner receptions at the Roundhouse and state lawmakers’ trips to Azerbaijan – that has prompted at least isolated criticism and landed New Mexico in the midst of a long-running regional feud, local newspaper Albuquerque Journal writes.

According to the newspaper, a top-ranking state lawmaker who was one of numerous legislators to travel to Azerbaijan in recent years as part of official delegations insists the paid-for trips have been educational and they were not pressured to provide anything in return.

However, during the past three years, New Mexico legislators have approved nonbinding memoranda extolling the virtues of Azerbaijan and the ties between the secular Muslim majority country and the Land of Enchantment. Most of those memoranda received unanimous backing without much debate.

“Although the memorials do not carry legal weight, copies of them were sent to President Barack Obama, the U.S. ambassador to Azerbaijan and other elected and appointed officials. However, Azerbaijan has plenty of critics. It was recently listed as one of the 10 most censored countries in the world by the Committee to Protect Journalists, along with North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran and others,” the newspaper writes, adding that New Mexico isn’t alone in receiving attention from Azerbaijan, which has pushed for similar resolutions or memoranda in more than 30 states.

Earlier, U.S. Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham, again from New Mexico, was named in a Washington Post report as one of 10 members of Congress who traveled to the country for the conference, which was secretly paid for by the country’s state-owned oil company.

This Albuquerque Democrat reportedly told investigators she thought the trip was being paid for by nonprofit groups and did not think Azerbaijani rugs she received as gifts on the trip were valuable or attractive. Besides, she received approval for the trip from the House Ethics Committee before she left.

Lujan Grisham and some of her colleagues did not report the gifted rugs on disclosure forms after returning home.