Yesterday president of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with president of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev at Star of “Baltica” hotel in Saint Petersburg. It is the first meeting of Serzh Sargsyan with Aliyev in his tenure in the president’s position. The meeting started in participation with foreign affairs ministers Edward Nalbandyan and Elmar Mamediarov, OSCE co-chairmen Youri Merzlyakov, Matthew Bryza, Bernard Fasier, as well as Anjey Kasperchik, the special representative of the OSCE incumbent president. Later the presidents continued their meeting face to face. This meeting lasted one hour, after which the foreign affairs ministers, OSCE co-chairmen and the special representative of the OSCE president joined them.
According to the Armenian president’s spokesperson, Armenia considers this meeting constructive. During this meeting the presidents restated their stances toward the issue of Karabakh and instructed the foreign affairs ministers to continue working with the OSCE co-chairmen and cooperate with them within the framework of the negotiations. They also agreed upon working with the co-chairmen to agree the approaches of the parties to the extent possible. The parties agreed that the co-chairmen would visit Armenia at the end of June. The parties will set the concrete date of the visit in the nearest future. After the meeting of the presidents the foreign affairs ministers had one more meeting. According to the Russian Ambassador to Azerbaijan, Vasili Istratov, the meeting of Aliyev and Sargsyan can bring to a new phase of the Karabakh conflict negotiations. “It is the first meeting. We expect this meeting will not be the last one and a new phase of negotiations will start,” he said and assured that Moscow, as Washington and Paris, “is ready to provide active support to the parties to settle the conflict because the current conflict can be solved only through mutual agreement of the parties”. Edward Nalbandyan says that the meeting of the presidents was positive and constructive. “The presidents presented their approaches and instructed the foreign affairs ministers to continue cooperating with the OSCE co-chairmen within the framework of the OSCE MG,” said Nalbandyan. Both Nalbandyan and Mamediarov say that the process of negotiations will continue within the framework of the Praha process and recommendations that have been presented last year in Madrid, which also considers the recommendations of the Armenian and Azerbaijani parties. “We will try to agree our approaches and find common grounds,” said Mamediarov. Edward Nalbandyan also said that the problem does not consist in “starting the negotiations from zero, but the issue how the approaches of the parties can move closer”. Concerning the meeting of the presidents American co-chairman Matthew Bryza said that the meeting was successful and it means that the parties can continue their work within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. “Our goal is to try to develop the recommendations on the table of negotiations in consideration of the wishes of the parties,” Bryza said. Concerning his expectations from the meeting Matthew Bryza said, “Our expectations have come true. I mean that we were expecting the meeting would be introductory and it happened. The moods are positive and constructive. The presidents told us that they are ready to continue the negotiations within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group and the recommendations we presented in Madrid.” He says that both the parties have expressed their opinions concerning the mediators’ recommendations. “We have heard the wishes of both parties because we know that the recommendations we presented in Madrid are mere recommendations and it was not expected that the parties would totally agree with them. Those recommendations need to be developed and improved, the mediators are ready to continue working, and I think the presidents do as well,” said Bryza.