Federal News Service
May 26, 2006 Friday

STATE DEPARTMENT REGULAR BRIEFING

BRIEFER: SEAN MCCORMACK, DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN

LOCATION: STATE DEPARTMENT BRIEFING ROOM, WASHINGTON, D.C.

[parts omitted]

Q Do you have anything on Dan Fried’s visit to the Caucasus?

MR. MCCORMACK: He did — he’s just back, I think today, or he’s on
his way back. He was there working with the Minsk Group co-chairs,
Russia as well as France, to see if we could find a way forward on
resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh issue between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
I don’t have a readout for you, Nicholas, as to what sort of progress
they may have made. I know that the presidents of Azerbaijan and
Armenia are scheduled to get together pretty soon in Bucharest, in
Romania, I think the beginning of June. And the hope would be that
they might — might at that point be able to come to closure on some
of the issues that divide them. They made a run at it while they were
in France. They weren’t able to come to agreement. We, working with
the Minsk co-chairs, are hopeful that they can come together to
resolve whatever differences there are. These are tough issues, we
know; it’s going to require tough political decisions on both sides.
But we think that at the end of the day, taking those tough political
decisions will benefit all the peoples of that region.

Q Was this meeting in Minsk?

MR. MCCORMACK: It was in —

Q Yerevan.

MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah, I have to check, I have to verify for you. It
wasn’t in Minsk, though, I can tell you that.