YEREVAN AND BAKU CAN MAKE THEIR POSITIONS CLOSER ON THE THRESHOLD OF G8 SUMMIT IN ST. PETERSBURG
Regnum, Russia
June 13 2006
On the threshold of the G8 summit, which is to be held in
St. Petersburg on July 15-17, issue of top priority in the Armenian
agenda is worded as follows: will President Robert Kocharyan
participate in the summit and will he meet Azerbaijani President
Ilham Aliyev for talks on Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.
On June 4 and 5, in Bucharest, leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan
failed to achieve any progress in the issues they were discussing.
Upon returning to Yerevan Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan
confirmed the presidents “failed to fix the progress.” And they
failed despite the fact that OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs had proposed
new wording and new approaches. “Nevertheless, foreign ministers of
the two countries were told to continue the talks and try to find
common grounds,” Vardan Oskanyan said. It was earlier reported that
foreign ministers of the two countries are to meet in Paris on June
13. During the talks, the parties are to try to get their positions
closer and to pave the way for the next meeting of the presidents.
Some analysts tend to think that the date of another Kocharyan-Aliyev
meeting is not far off: the presidents will have such opportunity in
the near future, namely at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. “This
is quite an important factor, and the co-chairs believed that if
they managed to agree on key issues before the G8 summit, it will
be the best guarantee if the international community does its best
to implement these agreements in all aspects of security, economic,
financial, and political cooperation. These time limits forced to
speed up the process to some extent,” Kocharyan said.
It is a month left before the G8 summit, Armenian and Azerbaijani
foreign ministers are to meet today, and it should not be ruled out
that they succeed in getting the positions closer and come to an
agreement on some principles, preparing by this a good basis for the
Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
