Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry comments on trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian Presidents

It would be better if the Armenian side recognized the need to transfer the number of meetings on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement into quality, Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said.

An extensive exchange of views was held at the meeting, he said commenting on trilateral meeting of Azerbaijani, Russian and Armenian Presidents in St. Petersburg on June 17.

"We believe any meeting at the presidential level, especially with the Russian leader's participation, is important to find a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," Polukhov said.

Polukhov said such meetings always give hope to find ways leading to a mutually acceptable resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

"Azerbaijan's position is that the document submitted to the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides allows to reach a new level of negotiations," Polukhov added.

Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan during the recent talks with their Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev confirmed their readiness to continue dialogue to upon the Madrid principles for the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, Spokesperson of the Russian President Natalia Timakova said.

Basic principles for the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement, known as the Madrid principles, were presented to Armenia and Azerbaijan by the Foreign Ministers of France and Russia and the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State in November 2007 in Madrid. At the meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan in Sochi Jan.15, the OSCE Minsk Group submitted the parties an updated version of the Madrid document.

"There was mentioned the rapprochement of parties' positions on a number of disputable provisions of the text of the basic principles of settlement," said Timakova, noting that the trilateral meeting covered key problems of the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement.

"The presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia confirmed readiness to continue dialogue aimed at finalizing the document with the mediation of Russia, USA and France as co-chairs of OSCE Minsk Group," she said.


/Trend/