NEW ARMENIAN PRESIDENT COULD MEET AZERI COUNTERPART SOON – MINISTER

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS
February 26, 2008
Russia

The co-chairmen of the OSCE Minsk Group for the Nagorno-Karabakh
settlement have proposed to organize a meeting of new Armenian
President Serzh Sargsyan with Azeri President Ilkham Aliyev, Armenian
Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian said.

Sargsyan will get actively engaged in the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement
talks after he is sworn in as president on April 9, Oskanian told
journalists on Monday.

"The new Armenian president knows well the content of the document
on the negotiating table, and just as the previous president endorse
in principle the basic settlement principles," the minister said.

EU Special Representative for the South Caucasus Peter Semneby has
called to organize a meeting between the two presidents in the near
future, he said.

"I think that we will not lose time and will soon resume the talks,
hoping that we will be able to secure more progress in the Nagorno-
Karabakh settlement in 2008 before the Azeri presidential elections,"
Oskanian said.