RUSSIAN DEFENCE MINISTER SAYS TALKS ONLY WAY TO RESOLVE KARABAKH

Azad Azarbaycan TV, Baku
31 May 06

[Presenter] Baku is hosting the 50th meeting of the Council of CIS
Defence Ministers today. The Russian, Azerbaijani, Belarussian,
Kyrgyz, Tajik and Ukrainian defence ministers, as well as top
military delegations from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Moldova, are
taking part. The Azerbaijani side drew the attention of participants
in the meeting to the settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.

[Correspondent over video of the meeting] A peaceful solution to the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict is the only way out of the situation,
Russian Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov said at the meeting of the
Council of CIS Defence Ministers in Baku. He said that it might be
not only inefficient, but also dangerous to look for other ways of
resolving the conflict.

[Sergey Ivanov shown speaking in Russian with Azeri voice-over]
Russia has touched on the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict many times. As
a member of the OSCE Minsk Group, we support a peaceful solution to
the conflict. You probably know that representatives of Azerbaijan
and Armenia hold regular talks within the framework of the Minsk Group.

For the time being, I cannot say how much progress has been made in
these talks. But I can say that this is the only way to resolve the
conflict. I believe that any other scheme is not only inefficient,
but also dangerous for the settlement of the conflict.

[Correspondent] Ivanov added that the final version of the settlement
of the conflict should be drafted on the basis of a mutual agreement
between the parties. He said that the countries that give guarantees
are ready to help implement any agreement reached by the two sides.

Ivanov spoke out against the idea that the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs
should prepare a model of the settlement of the conflict.

[Passage omitted: The Azerbaijani defence minister commented on idea
of deploying peacekeepers in member states of GUAM, an alliance of
Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova]