Armenian Public TV , Armenia
June 6 2008
Armenian, Azeri presidents decide to continue Karabakh talks
[Presenter] President Serzh Sargsyan is on a working visit to Russia’s
northern capital [St Petersburg]. In St Petersburg he is attending an
informal summit of the CIS leaders and the 12th St Petersburg
International Economic Forum. Our filming crew has been accompanying
the president, and now Lusine Lazarian will present the details of
the visit over phone.
[Correspondent speaking over phone; no video] The first meeting
between the Armenian and the Azerbaijani president finished about an
hour ago, it lasted a little more than an hour, and was followed by a
media briefing of the foreign ministers of the two countries.
The meeting was a familiarizing and the first one, but in general,
according to the foreign ministers of the two countries, it was
constructive.
The Armenian foreign minister said that the presidents had
familiarized themselves with the approaches of the sides and assigned
the foreign ministers to continue the negotiations within the format
of the OSCE Minsk Group. Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mammadyarov said that a decision had been made and that the OSCE
co-chairs would visit the region in the near future. The dates are
being negotiated at the moment and will be published soon, he said. We
must think about how we can bring the approaches of the sides closer,
the Azerbaijani foreign minister said. I’d like to add that according
to the foreign ministers, the Madrid proposals were not discussed as
part of the presidents’ meeting since the sides have their own
approaches to them, which still need to be discussed.
Answering to a question of a Radio Liberty journalist as to whether
the Azerbaijani side has changed its mind to raise the issue of the
Nagornyy Karabakh conflict at other international organizations,
viewing the future of the negotiation process within the OSCE format,
the Azerbaijani foreign minister said that there is the Minsk format
and that it will have a continuation. The Armenian foreign minister
added that the negotiations process will continue and the first
Sargsyan-Aliyev meeting does not mean that the process will start from
scratch.
The evaluations of the OSCE mediators regarding the first meeting, in
general, coincided with one another. The US co-chair said it was a
successful and familiarizing meeting, the presidents were in quite a
high mood and the sides are ready to continue the negotiations
process. The OSCE mediators will need to additionally develop the
proposals on the negotiating table and to bring those closer to the
approaches of the two sides. The co-chairs said that they are ready to
carefully listen to any proposal of the sides and to discuss all the
approaches together.
This is it for the moment. Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan will meet
Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev in the second half of the day.