G-8 FOREIGN MINISTERS CALL FOR PROMPT RESOLUTION OF REGIONAL CONFLICTS IN EX-SOVIET UNION, BALKANS

AP Worldstream
Jun 29, 2006

Foreign ministers from the Group of Eight major industrialized nations
on Thursday called for a prompt resolution to regional conflicts that
continue to plague some ex-Soviet territories and Balkan countries.

In a joint statement, diplomats called for the ex-Soviet South Caucasus
states of Armenia and Azerbaijan to reach an agreement this year on
the long and bitterly disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.

"We call on Azerbaijan and Armenia to show political will with the
aim to reach an agreement this year and prepare their peoples for
peace and not for war," the document said.

Nagorno-Karabakh is inside Azerbaijan, but is populated mostly by
ethnic Armenians, who have run it and seven contiguous districts since
an uneasy 1994 cease-fire ended six years of full-scale war. Sporadic
border clashes regularly break out. The unresolved conflict has held
up development in the strategic region.

The ministers also urged a solution for the Serbian province,
Kosovo. The ethnic Albanian majority want to become independent,
but the Serb minority wants it to remain part of Serbia.

"We welcomed the launch of direct Belgrade-Pristina talks and in this
regard we urge the parties, including the Kosovo Serbs, to negotiate
in good faith and make every effort to reach a negotiated agreement,"
the ministers said.

"We underline that Kosovo must remain multiethnic. The Kosovo
leadership should pay particular attention to implementing the
standards for national minorities defined by the international
community," the statement said.