Matthew Bryza: Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan decided to continue
negotiations on basis of principles offered in Madrid
2008-06-06 21:43:00
ArmInfo. Commenting upon the June 6 meeting of Armenian and Azeri
Presidents Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev in St. Petersburg, US
Co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group Matthew Bryza said that the main
result of the meeting is that the parties agreed to continue the talks
on the basis of principles offered to them in Madrid in 2007, Radio
Liberty reports.
Bryza stressed that the expectations from the meeting were justified.
He added that the presidents had just told the co-chairs that they
agreed to continue the Karabakh peace process within the frames of the
OSCE Minsk Group on the basis of the suggestions made by the co-chairs
in Madrid.
According to Bryza, both parties presented their positions on the
co-chairs’ suggestions. The co-chairs listened to both parties’
opinions. He added that the Madrid suggestions were just suggestions,
and this doesn’t mean that the parties fully agreed with them, he
noted.
He also added that these suggestions should be completed and the
intermediaries as well as the presidents are ready to continue. Asked
about arrangement on further meetings of the presidents or the
co-chairs visit to Nagorno-Karabakh, Bryza replied that the
intermediaries are going to visit the Karabakh conflict zone by the end
of the current month, as for the next meeting of the presidents, its
date has not been specified yet since it depends on the meeting of
foreign ministers of the two states.
As Armenian Public TV reports, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov said for his part that at present they are discussing the
terms of the next visit of the co-chairs to the region taking into
consideration schedule of the presidents and foreign ministers.
Presumably the visit will take place at the end of June.
Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan said when commenting on the
results of the two presidents’ meeting that the presidents charged the
foreign ministers to continue the talks within the frames of the OSCE
Minsk Group.