Azerbaijani, Armenian ministers to discuss Karabakh on Aug 23

Azerbaijani, Armenian ministers to discuss Karabakh on Aug 23

ITAR-TASS News Agency
July 19, 2005 Tuesday 1:23 PM Eastern Time

MOSCOW, July 19 — The Karabakh settlement will be on the agenda
of the August 23 meeting of the Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign
ministers in Moscow.

The consultations will be held within the framework of the CIS Council
of Foreign Ministers and contribute to prospects for the negotiations
between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President
Robert Kocharian due in Kazan on August 26.

“Chances for the Karabakh settlement are high as never before,”
special representative of the Azerbaijani president Araz Azimov said.

The Azerbaijani president and foreign minister had negotiations with
the OSCE Minsk Group delegation in Baku in early July.

Baku will invest $26 billion in social and economic projects in
Nagorno-Karabakh after the settlement, Azerbaijani Economic Development
Minister Farhad Aliyev said.

The Azerbaijani position in the Karabakh settlement “has become much
more constructive,” said president of the unrecognized republic of
Nagorno-Karabakh Arkady Gukasian. “Azerbaijan is ready to discuss
issues, which have always been of interest for Nagorno-Karabakh,”
he told the Armenian television. Gukasian thinks that Azerbaijan has
a will for settling the conflict.

The United Nations and the European Union promised to assign large
funds for the post-settlement reconstruction of Nagorno-Karabakh. The
Minsk Group cochairmen are formulating principles of a normalization
document.

Minsk Group American Cochairman Steven Mann thinks that an agreement
on Karabakh may be reached within months, and everything depends on
the political will of the Azerbaijani and Armenian administrations.

French Cochairman Bernard Fassier said the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe is doing its best to bring the sides’
positions closer, as the settlement is important for the region
at large.