Senior Russian official: Relations with Azerbaijan are among Russia's foreign policy priorities

“Russia’s relations with CIS countries remain priorities of our foreign policy and, of course, relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan is also among foreign policy and economic priorities”, Chairman of the International Relations Committee of the Russian Council of Federation Mikhail Margelov said at a press conference in Moscow.

He said cooperation was successfully developed in the field of hydrocarbon resources.

"Series of joint cultural events are planned to be held next year. Russian-Azerbaijani relations will be developed in all spheres”.

Regarding Russia’s role in the settlement of Nagorno Karabakh conflict, Margelov believes that it is important for Russia to support settlement of “frozen” conflicts in the post-soviet area.

"The tragedy that happened in Georgia last August must be prevented not to happen again. We have to make steps towards both Azerbaijan and Armenia because international organizations, for example OSCE, cannot do effective work in establishing of bridges between these two countries," he said.

Margelov reminded that Nagorno-Karabakh conflict has been in “frozen” state for 20 years.

He said the conflict couldn’t be passed into next generations and it should be solved now.

“We believe in wisdom of Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders. Russia will do everything to solve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in near future. We will support this process via inter-parliamentarian dialogue and dialogues between the civil societies, as well as in the format of international organizations," he said.

/APA/