AZERI FOREIGN MINISTER: RUSSIA PLAYS A CONSTRUCTIVE ROLE IN NEGOTIATIONS ON NAGORNO-KARABAKH

Trend News Agency, Azerbaijan
March 22 2007

During his speech on 21 March at Middle Asia and Caucasus Institute
of Jon Hopkins in Washington, the Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan,
Elmar Mammadyarov stated that Russia plays a constructive role in
the negotiations regarding the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict settlement.

"Based on talks with the Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, I can
say that the Russian representative plays a very constructive role,"
Mammadyarov said. "Prior to the recent meeting of the Foreign Ministers
of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Geneva, a meeting took place in Moscow. My
talks with the Foreign Minister of Russia, Lavrov, concurred with
Azerbaijan in that we need to move forward. I positively assess the
role of Russia," Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister said.

According to Mammadyarov, within its foreign policy role,
Azerbaijan’s top priority is the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh
conflict. "Nagorno-Karabakh is a very sensitive issue for the
people of the two countries," he said. "Over the past 15 years of
negotiations, we were close to reaching an agreement several times,
but at the final moment, certain events occurred which prevented this
from taking place. I feel that now is the appropriate time to regulate
the conflict. We should take each step at a time so as to achieve
great confidence between the two nations," Mammadyarov stressed.

According to the Azerbaijani Minister, we believe that the prompt
settlement of the conflict is in the interest of Armenia and its
national security. "It is obvious that a political decision should
be taken step by step in order to strengthen the confidence between
the countries and to establish economic co-operation, resulting in
the withdrawal of troops and involvement of the peacemakers. This is
reality. The sooner the Head of Armenia understands this, the better
it will be for Armenia and the region in general. "We are continuing
negotiations regarding the principles of the settlement. We have
succeeded to a certain extent, but there is still more to do,"
Mammadyarov said.