SARKISIAN SAYS ADVANCES DISCERNED IN CONFLICT SETTLEMENT

AzerNews Weekly
July 21 2009
Azerbaijan

Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian said Tuesday advances are observed
in the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Upper
(Nagorno) Garabagh, though with difficulty.

The statement was made in his meeting in Yerevan with Swedish Foreign
Minister Carl Bildt, who led the European Union delegation on a visit
to the South Caucasus states.

Sarkisian recalled discussing basic principles of the conflict
resolution with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev last week. He said
the remaining issues will be considered at further meetings, and,
based on that, an agreement will be drafted on a peaceful settlement
of the long-standing dispute.

Besides ways of reaching a fair solution to the Garabagh problem,
the Armenian leader and the Swedish minister focused on a number of
regional issues.

A delegation of the EU troika, headed by Bildt, the bloc`s chairman,
has paid visits to Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. During the
meetings in Baku, discussions centered on a wide range of issues,
including economic cooperation, the Eastern Partnership program,
energy, security issues, and human rights.