Armenian defence minister, US envoy discuss ties, Karabakh

Arminfo
11 Jan 05

YEREVAN

The secretary of the National Security Council under the Armenian
president and defence minister, Serzh Sarkisyan, today met the US
ambassador to Armenia, John Evans.

Sarkisyan and Evans wished each other a happy New Year and Merry
Christmas and a peaceful and creative year full of success and
achievements, Sarkisyan’s press secretary Col Seyran Shakhsuvaryan
told Arminfo news agency. They hoped that warm relations between the
two countries would continue to develop in 2005 as well. Sarkisyan
expressed confidence that Armenian-US ties would develop further this
year.

Speaking about a scheduled inspection mission in 2005 within the
framework of the Vienna Agreement [presumably, nuclear safety
inspection], Evans stressed that he highly appreciated Sarkisyan’s
openness and comprehensive view of the processes going on in the
world, and that this facilitated the development of relations between
the countries.

Speaking about the Nagornyy Karabakh issue, Evans welcomed Sarkisyan’s
repeated statements that the Nagornyy Karabakh Republic has been
trying to settle the conflict exclusively peacefully. The sides
discussed exchange of POWs within the framework of the OSCE monitoring
mission led by the personal representative of the OSCE
chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kasprzyk, as well as via the Red Cross and
other public and humanitarian organizations. They also discussed
expanding cooperation between the aforesaid organizations and the
[Armenian] army.