PanARMENIAN.Net
Sweden’s Azeri diaspora protest action didn’t frustrate
Bildt-Nalbandian meeting
08.11.2008 12:19 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt held talks
Friday with visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward
Nalbandian. Bildt said he welcomed the joint declaration this week by
the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan to seek a peaceful
solution to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, referring to the breakaway
region claimed by both Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Bildt said the recent war between Russia and Georgia over the
breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia showed the danger that
so-called "frozen conflicts never stay frozen."
The Swedish Foreign Minister said he hoped to visit Yerevan before
Sweden takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European
Union in July 2009.
In a speech organized by the Institute for Security and Development
Policy, Nalbandian said that the conflict in Georgia was a "matter of
grave concern" for Armenia.
As a neighboring state, 70 per cent of Armenia’s transits go through
Georgia so "any major event in Georgia, echoes in Armenia," he said.
The meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow was
"a step forward," Nalbandian said.
He also noted that while the ramifications of conflict in Georgia were
yet to be assessed, it had sent a signal that "war is never an
answer," The Earthtimes reports.
On the eve of the meeting, the Azeri diaspora gathered to protest the
visit of Edward Nalbandian. After the action, the demonstrators handed
a statement `on Armenian aggression against Azerbaijan’ to the Swedish
MFA.