Anna Nazaryan
Public Radio of Armenia
Russia is interested in the soonest resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian in Yerevan.
“All bases exist for the resolution of this conflict. I mean the principles incorporated in the statements of the Presidents of Russia, the United States and France. Now it is important to coordinate the parameters of practical realization of these principles and the sequence of steps that should be taken in that direction. Russia, as one of the Minsk Group Co-Chairing countries, will seek to maintain the dialogue between the Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents re-launched at the end of 2013 and contribute to the settlement of the remaining unsolved issues,” Lavrov said.
French President Francois Hollande declared in Yerevan about his intention to host a presidential meeting in Paris. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov stated in response that Baku was waiting for “concreteness.”
“Within the framework of the visit to Armenia, the President of France made a concrete proposal to organize a summit of the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan. Perhaps, Baku is waiting for something different,” the Armenian Foreign Minister said.
“Azerbaijan constantly dislikes the proposals made by the co-chairing countries on behalf of the international community, including the suggestions on the reinforcement of the ceasefire regime, withdrawal of snipers, creation of mechanisms for investigation of border incidents. There is simply no alternative to the proposal of the co-chairing countries targeted at the resolution of the Karabakh conflict exceptionally in a peaceful way,” Minister Nalbandian added.
Speaking about the normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations, Sergey Lavrov said “Russia is ready to support the process.”
“Both before and after the signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols we have expressed our willingness to make our contribution to the process in the format that will suit Armenia and Turkey. There were ideas to implement infrastructure projects that could unite the nations, countries and adjacent regions. All this remains in force, but the primary role here belongs to the two counties that have signed the protocols. We are ready to provide every support to their implementation,” Lavrov said.
“Russia upholds Armenia’s involvement in Eurasian integration. We discussed cooperation in different international organizations, including within the UN, the Council of Europe, the CIS, the OSCE and the CSTO,” Lavrov said.
“Russia and Armenia maintain strategic partnership that is based on centuries-long friendship, mutual assistance and good-neighborliness. This is an important factor for ensuring stability of our states and maintaining regional stability,” Lavrov said.
“The high-level regular and trust-based dialogue gives an impetus to our multilateral relations. Today we’ve discussed the implementation of the agreements, reached in the course of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to Yerevan last year and at the meeting between our presidents in Moscow on May 8,” he said.
“We praise the work of the intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation. The similar commission for military-technical cooperation operates. Recently the inter-parliamentary commission has met. We expect the Armenian speaker to arrive in Moscow in early July,” he said.
“We believe that the strengthening of inter-parliamentary relations will facilitate further development of cooperation,” Lavrov said.
