U.S. WILL HAVE NO OTHER WAY BUT TO MAINTAIN BALANCE IN FAVOR OF AZERBAIJAN’S INTERESTS: RUSSIAN POLITICAL ANALYST
T. Teymur

Today.Az
09 December 2009 [12:32]

Washington seeks to pursue balanced policy trying not to shift the
balance from Yerevan to Baku, Moscow State University Information
and Analytical Center’s Expert Group Head Alexei Vlasov said. He was
commenting on a recent Erdogan-Obama meeting in the U.S.

"Given the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement and possible opening of
the borders and thanks largely to the hard pressure from Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. has no other way but to maintain
this balance is in favor of Azerbaijan’s interests. I do not think
this is a long-term trend," Vlasov said.

The expert also shared his views about further resolution of the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict by the OSCE Minsk Group.

"It should be noted that Kazakhstan will take over the OSCE
chairmanship in 2010. The Kazakh president has already several times
said his in public speeches that Astana is willing to give more
dynamics to this influential international organization, including
the "frozen" conflicts in the post-Soviet area. Therefore, one can
expect that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be one of the key
issues during Kazakhstan’s chairmanship in 2010."

"This activity can be demonstrated through various instruments. For
example, through holding OSCE-sponsored special conference on
settlement of the Karabakh conflict in wide format. Any expansion of
the so-called contact sites, where the parties can exchange views,
develop a common agenda which can be considered a positive factor. If
OSCE shows more activity and develops this dialogue into a higher-level
format, I think it will facilitate resolving real, not virtual problems
in the settlement of the Karabakh conflict," the political expert said.