Azeri, Armenian foreign ministers to meet in Prague on 15 January

ANS TV, Baku
23 Dec 04

[Presenter] The time of the next round of talks between the Azerbaijani
and Armenian foreign ministers on resolving the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict has been agreed on. It is expected that the talks will be
more specific this time, Yuriy Merzlyakov, Russian co-chairman of
the OSCE Minsk Group tackling the conflict, has said.

[Correspondent over archive footage] The next round of consultations
between the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers on how to settle
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict will be held in Prague on 15 January,
Merzlyakov told ANS. He thus indirectly responded to the Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan’s latest remarks.

Oskanyan said at yesterday’s [22 December] press conference that
Armenia was ready to speed up the process of resolving the issue of
Nagornyy Karabakh’s self-determination.

[Merzlyakov on telephone, with Azeri voice-over] We are now working
on a specific task, on holding consultations on 15 January. The sides
will lay out their positions in Prague and we will try to bring them
closer. No comments or declarations must be made at this point.

[Correspondent] In Merzlyakov’s words, specific issues will be
discussed on 15 January in Prague.

[Merzlyakov] We are now working on specific elements of the talks. The
sides have already expressed their positions. Therefore, we are
working on proposals.

I would also like to point that there are no very contentious issues
in their stances. There is a subject of the talks and the sides are
not rejecting it.

[Correspondent] Bernard Fassier, France’s newly appointed co-chairman
of the OSCE Minsk Group, will take part for the first time in the
Prague talks.