Armenian accepted the OSCE’s Madrid principles for a Karabakh settlement as a basis for talks two years ago, the foreign minister said yesterday.
He was speaking at a meeting with the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group mediating a settlement to the Karabakh conflict — Yury Merzlyakov (Russia), Bernard Fassier (France) and Robert Bradtke (US) — and the personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office, Andrzej Kasprzyk.
Nalbandian said Armenia had adopted the OSCE’s Madrid principles as a basis for negotiations two years ago and the principles remained the same, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry press service.
Nalbandian began the meeting by expressing his condolences to the Russian mediator over the explosions in the Moscow metro.
The meeting discussed the latest developments in the negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh and the possibility of rapprochement between the conflicting parties on the basis of the Madrid principles for a settlement. The co-chairs briefed the Armenian foreign minister on their latest meetings in Nagorno-Karabakh.
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan also received the Minsk Group co-chairs and Kasprzyk on Monday. The meeting, attended by Edward Nalbandian, discussed the Karabakh settlement negotiations.
Russian mediator Merzlyakov was reported as saying in Karabakh at the weekend that the Armenian side did not agree with some points in the updated Madrid principles. He said that his meeting with the Armenian foreign minister on 29 March did not discuss any specific wording of the principles.
The principles were put forward by the foreign ministers of the countries co-chairing the Minsk Group of mediators at the OSCE summit in Madrid in 2007. The updated version of the principles put forward in late 2009 has been the subject of discussions between the mediators, Armenia and Azerbaijan ever since.
Baku accepts the updated principles in general, but ’there are elements that do not suit us’, Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said earlier this month.
The Madrid principles include the return of the territories surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijani control, an interim status for Karabakh providing guarantees for security and self-governance, and the future determination of the final legal status of Nagorno-Karabakh through a legally binding expression of will. The status of Karabakh is thought to remain the biggest sticking point in the negotiations.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
