Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian has blamed Azerbaijan for lack of solution to the Karabakh conflict. “We have always appreciated the efforts of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs. Azerbaijan is to blame for the lack of solution to the Karabakh conflict, not the Co-Chairs or Armenia,” Minister Nalbandian said in an interview with Russian Kommersant Daily.
“The Karabakh conflict is one of the rare cases where countries like Russia, the US and France have a common approach. They have made concrete proposals reflected in five statements by Presidents of the co-chairing countries that could lead to a settlement,” Edward Nalbandian said. He noted that while Armenia has accepted the proposals, Azerbaijan continues to pretend there have not been any [statements] at all,” he said.
Minister Nalbandian stressed that “there is no alternative to peace talks” and reiterated Armenia’s willingness to continue to works with the Co-Chairs towards a peaceful resolution of the issue.
Speaking about the military-technical cooperation between Yerevan and Moscow, as well as the supply of Russian weapons to Azerbaijan, the Armenian Foreign Minister said: “We have to make efforts to keep the balance in the region and exclude new escalation. It’s well known that Azerbaijan has considerably increased its military expenses, with the military budget reaching several billion dollars. Under these conditions Armenia has to make efforts to keep the balance of power in the region.”
“We have allied relations with Russia and close military-technical cooperation. It’s no secret that we are buying weapons primarily from Russia. The fact that Russia sells weapons to different countries is natural, because Russia is one of the largest producers of armament and is very competitive on the market. Of course we cannot be delighted by the fact that Azerbaijan buys weapons from Russia and threatens to launch new war every day. We cannot be content with the fact that Baku is buying weapons from our partner, which is trying hard in cooperation with Armenia and within the framework of the CSTO to maintain peace and stability in our region,” Minister Nalbandian said.
As for the perspectives of military-technical relations with Russia, the Armenian Foreign Minister said “the close cooperation will continue into future.”