Armenian minister says “common ground” may be found with Baku on Karabakh

ITAR-TASS news agency
24 Aug 05

Moscow, 24 August: Baku and Yerevan may “find common ground” about the
settlement of the Nagornyy Karabakh issue, Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanyan said at a meeting with the Russian and Azerbaijani
counterparts in Moscow today.

“There is hope that we will find common ground,” he said. “This could
bring peace and stability to the South Caucasus region.”

“The main topic of the discussions in Moscow were preparations for the
meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Kazan on 27
August [on the sidelines of a CIS summit],” he said. “We discussed
details of the forthcoming talks,” Oskanyan said.

Like his Armenian opposite number, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov also assesses positively the Moscow meeting. At the same
time, he said “it is too early to speak about any progress towards the
Nagornyy Karabakh settlement”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed Russia’s intentions
“to create all conditions for achieving progress in the settlement” as
a result of the Moscow talks.