Settlement of the Karabakh conflict is among Russia’s priorities on post-Soviet space, Russian’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says.
Speaking to Armenian media outlets, Lavrov said Russia is taking collective efforts towards the resolution of the issue a member of the OSCE Minsk Group. He added that, taking into consideration Russia’s special relations with Armenia, Russia is also trying to come forth with own initiatives, in line with the common course of the Co-Chairs.
“The work done between 2009 and 2011 was truly very intensive. The President of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan had about ten meetings,” he said.
The Foreign Minister added that another meeting planned in Kazan allowed to hope for serious positive outcomes, as all concerns of Yerevan and Baku was taken into consideration in the draft documents prepared by the Russian side with support from the American and French Co-Chairs.
He added, however, that additional questions and comments arose during the summit itself.
“This happens,” Lavrov said. “We are not making a big tragedy of this. Efforts will continue, I’m confident that much of what the “Kazan document” includes is still in demand. This is confirmed by reactions from Yerevan and Baku on the contacts on the level of Presidents, Ministers and Co-Chairs, who have been visiting the region regularly,” he added.
“Nothing of what was worked out in that period has been lost. However, of course, some new ideas have emerged, which the Co-Chairs are currently promoting during their contacts with the parties. The most important is to move away from mistrust that sometimes emerges during negotiations and concentrate on the plenty of realistic, pragmatic ideas,” Lavrov said.
“They [the ideas] only need to be put on paper, although conceptually the parties agree with the need to do this, but difficulties arise when everything starts to take shape in concrete formulations. I think we’ll continue to consistently promote them and achieve results,” the Russian Foreign Minister stated.
