news.az, Azerbaijan
June 16 2011
Moscow expects decision from Armenian-Azerbaijani summit
Thu 16 June 2011 13:54 GMT | 9:54 Local Time
The leaders of Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia will take a decision on
the basic principles for a Karabakh settlement, a Russian official has
said.
Asked at his weekly briefing about Moscow’s hopes for the summit of
the three presidents on 25 June, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Alexander Lukashevich said: “Expectations are of course high. In line
with agreements reached, the forthcoming summit is to review the whole
package, the so-called basic principles for settlement of the Karabakh
conflict.”
The briefing can be watched on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website.
The presidents of the the USA, Russia and France, the countries
co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group mediating a settlement to the
conflict, last month urged the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders to
finalize the Basic Principles at their upcoming summit in Kazan on 25
June.
Alexander Lukashevich said today that the precise formulations of the
Basic Principles had been agreed by the Russian, Azerbaijani and
Armenian foreign ministers at their meetings in Moscow in April and
June.
“During the discussions they managed to reconcile positions on several
key issues. The presidents will view these reworkings and take the
relevant decisions,” the spokesman said.
The mediators have been working on the Basic Principles for several
years. If they are not accepted by the sides very soon, the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs will have to put forward a new settlement concept,
French co-chair Bernard Fassier said at hearings in the European
Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday.
The Basic Principles include the following:
-the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to
Azerbaijani control
-an interim status for Nagorno-Karabakh providing guarantees for
security and self-governance
-a corridor linking Armenia to Nagorno-Karabakh
-future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh
through a legally binding expression of will
-the right of all internally displaced persons and refugees to return
to their former places of residence
-international security guarantees that would include a peacekeeping operation.
News.Az