On July 16-17 the foreign ministers of Armenia, Russia, France and Azerbaijan and the deputy State Secretary of the United States had a meeting in Almaty. Unlike their expectations no documents were signed. Following the meeting only the heads of the co-chairs countries’ delegations made a statement reaffirming to continue the efforts for the peaceful settlement of the conflict. Concerning this announcement the Armenian foreign affairs minister Edward Nalbandyan said, “It was a useful meeting, even though it was not possible to make a joint statement. Of course, as always it was a result of the non-constructive approach of Azerbaijan.” The head of the foreign relations faction of the National Assembly of the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh Vahram Atanesyan said, “Certainly the co-chairs had better expectations from that meeting and this statement can be described as disappointment such as like they wanted certain results but failed to reach that goal.” He says that the statement clearly says that Russia failed to do what was expected from her to do. “I think in the near future they will try to find a new moderator,” he said.
