Russia hopes statement on Nagorno-Karabakh will be signed in Astana

Russia works in close contact with the Americans and the French as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview to the Voice of Russia.

"Ahead of the Astana summit, they met with the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan. They are tasked with preparing a declaration in time for the Astana summit, which Baku, Yerevan and the co-chairs can sign. We hope this will be possible," he said.

The OSCE has not held such a summit for 11 years. The OSCE summit will be held in Astana on Dec. 1-2 and will bring together presidents and prime ministers from 56 OSCE member countries and 12 OSCE partner countries, as well as the heads of 68 international organizations. During the summit, there are plans to discuss Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during the meeting of Presidents Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia.

According to him, over recent years, a relative lull has been recorded in the line of contact in the region. "But I can not say that at the Astana summit, a real breakthrough will be achieved in terms of the conflict settlement. This is very painstaking work," Lavrov said.

Russia is facilitating the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict as one of the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as in its national capacity, given our good neighbourly relations with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, he said.

"Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is personally involved in this issue. He has already held seven or eight meetings with the Azeri and Armenian presidents, in the course of which there were serious attempts to get to the bottom of still existing divergences, and get past differences of position. His aim is to develop the first collective all-encompassing document titled "Key Principles of Resolution", which will set the main guidelines for working out a legally binding final peace agreement," said the minister.

According to him, agreement has been reached on the vast majority of principles that could lay the foundation for the resolution. "However, there are still some serious problems," he said.


/Trend/