Armenian Foreign Ministry notes progress in regional ties in 2004

Arminfo
12 Jan 05

YEREVAN

According to the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s report on the results of
2004, which was made public today, last year saw some progress in
Armenia’s relations with its South Caucasus neighbours.

Under the document, significant progress was registered in the
development of Armenian-Georgian relations. A number of top-level
visits were paid and a meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental
commission was held. Together with economic issues, the sides focused
on the establishment of a regional security system, confidence
building measures in conflict solution, etc.

In the domain of Armenian-Iranian relations, the sides continued their
dialogue towards developing bilateral relations even further and
implementing mutually beneficial economic projects.

The document says there was no progress in Armenian-Turkish relations
in 2004. Turkey continues to make the problem of opening the
Armenian-Turkish border and normalizing relations with Armenia
conditional on a number of things, while Armenia stands for the
establishment of normal relations with Turkey without any
preconditions. In 2004, the Armenian and Turkish foreign ministers met
in New York to discuss bilateral problems, while the foreign ministers
of Armenia, Turkey and Azerbaijan also held a trilateral meeting on
the sidelines of the NATO Istanbul summit.

As regards relations with Azerbaijan, the report says that apart from
the discussions over the Karabakh conflict these relations were
maintained within the confines of international organizations and
certain contacts at the level of public organizations. The report adds
that the obstacles put up by the Azerbaijani side to bar the Armenian
side from NATO’s Cooperative Best Effort-2004 exercises in Baku led to
their cancellation.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress