Tehran Times – Iran
Jan 15 2010

Sarkisian, Medvedev to meet in Moscow next week

YEREVAN (Asbarez News) — Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian is set to
travel to Russia on January 18 for talks with Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev, the Armenian president’s spokesman Samvel Farmanyan said
Thursday at a press briefing.

According to Farmanyan, the two leaders will discuss strategic
relations and cooperation between the two countries as well as the
possibility of a tri-lateral meeting between Sarkisian, Medvedev and
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.

`It’s natural that the Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan can meet
both separately and in other formats unless the Karabakh conflict is
solved. There is nothing extraordinary here. On the contrary, it would
be strange if such meetings did not take place,’ Farmanyan said.

`As a Minsk Group Co-Chair country, Russia makes serious efforts to
solve the Karabakh issue and Armenia highly appreciates these
endeavors,’ Farmanyan said. `Thanks to the efforts of the President of
the Russian Federation, there have been two meetings in the trilateral
Armenia-Russia-Azerbaijan format.’

The news of Sarkisian’s scheduled visit came as Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrapped up a high-level visit to Moscow Wednesday
where he met with counterpart Vladimir Putin for talks on energy
cooperation and the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

Sarkisian’s Defense Minister was also in Moscow Wednesday on a working
visit aimed at reviewing Armenia’s close military ties with Russia and
their future.

According to the Armenian presidential press office, both the Karabakh
negotiating process and the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement were on the
meeting’s agenda along with bilateral issues.

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From: Baghdasarian