YURI MERZLYAKOV: THE PARTIES HAVE GOT SUBSTANTIALLY CLOSER ON THE NEGOTIATED ISSUES AND HAVE STARTED DISCUSSING NEW ONES

ArmInfo
2009-07-17 21:04:00

ArmInfo. If we compare today’s meeting of the Armenian and Azeri
presidents with the previous one in St.Petersburg, we will see
no serious achievements in terms of coordination of the basic
principles. Nevertheless, the parties have got substantially closer
on the negotiated issues, the Russian co-chair of the OSCE Minsk
Group Yuri Merzlyakov said after the meeting of Presidents Sargsyan
and Aliyev in Moscow.

ArmInfo’s correspondent in Moscow quotes Merzlyakov as saying that
the parties have started discussing new issues. Both the presidents
and the co-chairs believe that the settlement is possible. So, the
presidential meetings will be continued. The US co-chair Matthew Bryza
will visit the region in Aug, the French co-chair Bernard Fassier –
in early Sept, all the co-chairs – in late Sept. The next meeting of
the presidents may take place in Oct.

The presidents did not discuss the possibility of involvement of
Nagorno-Karabakh in the peace talks as this issue was not on the
agenda.

French co-chair Bernard Fassier said that there is progress in the
peace process, however, the Madrid principles have not yet received
the final approval of the presidents. The presidents have discussed
a wide range of problems and they need time for assessing this
discussion. Fassier is sure that by Oct the presidents will sum up
the results of the Moscow meeting and will get ready for the new one.

To note, the Moscow meeting of the Armenian and Azeri presidents
lasted for over three hours.