RUSSIA INTERESTED IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH SETTLEMENT, ARMENIAN-TURKISH NORMALIZATION

Panorama.am
17:31 14/01/2010

President Serzh Sargsyan today received the Foreign Minister of
Russia, Sergey Lavrov. Greeting the guest, President Sargsyan noted:
"I should note with appreciation that our strategic partnership
was supplemented with qualitatively new elements in 2009, the high
level of intensive political dialogue was maintained, the economic,
cultural and humanitarian ties reinforced."

President Sargsyan noted that Armenia will continue making efforts
towards deepening of the bilateral cooperation.

"We are grateful to Russia for the great efforts towards
Nagorno-Karabakh settlement and the Armenian-Turkish normalization,"
President highlighted.

Sergey Lavrov conveyed the warmest greetings of the Russian President
Dmitry Medvedev to Serzh Sargsyan and said: "He hopes that the
intensive, allied and trustful relations between our countries
will be maintained this year. We also appreciate the level of
strategic partnership between our countries in all spheres of allied
cooperation," Sergey Lavrov said.

The Armenian President and the Russian Foreign Minister discussed the
dynamically developing Armenian-Russian relations, the deepening of
collaboration in the trade-economic and humanitarian spheres.

Serzh Sargsyan and Sergey Lavrov exchanged views on issues of the
wider Caucasus region, particularly the process of settlement of the
Karabakh issue and the normalization of relations between Armenia and
Turkey. The Russian Foreign Minister noted that during yesterday’s
joint press conference with the Turkish Prime Minister, the Head of
Russian Government Vladimir Putin once again presented the position
of official Moscow, emphasizing that the two processes are in no
way linked.

Sergey Lavrov underlined that Russia is interested in both the
normalization of the Armenian-Turkish relations and the settlement
of the Karabakh issue.