Earthtimes (press release), UK
Nov 7 2008
Sweden hosts Armenian foreign minister
Posted : Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:24:10 GMT
Author : DPA
Stockholm – Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt held talks Friday with
visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian. Bildt said he
welcomed the joint declaration this week by the presidents of Russia,
Armenia and Azerbaijan to seek a peaceful solution to the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, referring to the breakaway region claimed
by both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Bildt said the recent war between Russia and Georgia over the
breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia showed the danger that
so-called "frozen conflicts never stay frozen."
The Swedish foreign minister said he hoped to visit Yerevan before
Sweden takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European
Union in July 2009.
In a speech organized by the Institute for Security and Development
Policy, Nalbandian said that the conflict in Georgia was a "matter of
grave concern" for Armenia.
As a neighbouring state, 70 per cent of Armenia’s transits go through
Georgia so "any major event in Georgia, echoes in Armenia," he said.
The meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow was
"a step forward," Nalbandian said.
Nalbandian also noted that while the ramifications of conflict in
Georgia were yet to be assessed, it had sent a signal that "war is
never an answer."
Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mainly by ethnic Armenians, pulled out of
the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan in 1988, triggering fighting. A
ceasefire has been in place since 1994.