Russia hails progress in Karabakh talks – Foreign Ministry statement

ITAR-TASS news agency
14 Jan 05

MOSCOW

Moscow notes with satisfaction that “meetings between the Armenian and
Azerbaijani sides at different levels, including at the level of
presidents and within the framework of the Prague process, have become
regular”, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported today commenting on
the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Vardan
Oskanyan and Elmar Mammadyarov, in Prague this week. The meeting was
also attended by the co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group for the
Nagornyy Karabakh settlement (Russia, the USA and France).

During consultations, Armenian and Azerbaijani representatives
“consider almost all the aspects of the situation related to the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict, including pull-out of troops,
demilitarization of the territory, international guarantees and
Nagornyy Karabakh status”.

“Both sides confirm their readiness to continue joint efforts, mindful
of the importance of easing the tension around the Nagornyy Karabakh
problem and, correspondingly, improving the situation in the whole of
the South Caucasus,” the Foreign Ministry said.

As for the issues discussed, “some progress has been registered in
rapprochement between Yerevan and Baku and their conceptual
approaches”, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“Agreements between the sides to go ahead with the previously adopted
decision to send to occupied territories around Nagornyy Karabakh a
fact-finding mission of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as to make
efforts to organize a new meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani
presidents in Warsaw in the summer” are of the same context.

“Moscow, as previously, expresses its readiness together with other
members of the OSCE Minsk Group to promote understanding between
Armenia and Azerbaijan with the aim of resolving the Nagornyy Karabakh
conflict through talks and peacefully,” the Russian Foreign Ministry
stressed.

[Azeri ANS TV carried the Russian Foreign Ministry statement as the
first item in its main 1700 gmt bulletin on 14 January, without adding
any comment of its own or giving any further details.]