AZERBAIJAN, ARMENIA SEE EYE-TO-EYE ON CLEARANCE OF MINES
by E. Huseynov

Trend news agency, Azerbaijan
Oct 4 2005

Baku, 4 October: An agreement on the clearance of mines has already
been secured during the talks on the peaceful resolution of the
Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagornyy Karabakh, Azerbaijani
Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has told journalists, Trend news
agency reports.

He said that the clearance of mines is a crucial process and will
be of overriding importance once Armenia pulls out of the occupied
territories. The clearance of mines is one of the topics on which an
agreement was reached during the consultations with Armenia and the
OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen.

The next round of the talks may take place in Ljubljana on 3-4
December on the sidelines of the OSCE foreign ministers’ summit,
Mammadyarov said. “The meeting in Ljubljana is not definite yet, but
I will certainly be there,” the minister said and added that during
the consultations, the discussion will continue within the framework
of the “Prague process”.

Asked about possible work on a draft agreement on the peaceful
resolution of the conflict, Mammadyarov said: “We still have to agree
on conceptual issues. Only after that, can we say whether there will
be a document or not. It is still too early and there is no talk
about any document.”

There has been some progress during the talks, but there is no talk
about an official document, the minister said. “Certainly, something
is taken down and is under discussion. We will summarize our position
and so will Armenia, and the co-chairmen are working to summarize
this. But it is still too early to talk about an official document,”
Mammadyarov said.