The Azerbaijani, Armenian and Russian presidents have discussed the key problems in settling the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The three leaders met yesterday in the Konstantinov Palace in St Petersburg,Interfax-Azerbaijan reported.
Opening the meeting while journalists were still present, Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev noted that this was the latest in a sequence of meetings between the three leaders.
'This is our sixth meeting, I mean the three of us together, and that's a fair number,' Medvedev said.
The Russian leader continued with pleasantries about the weather before journalists had to leave the meeting and the real discussions began.
The meeting considered key questions in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the Russian president's press secretary, Natalya Timakova, said afterwards.
'Rapprochement between the sides could be seen on a number of contentious points in the text of the main principles for a settlement,' Timakova said.
Referring to what has become known as the OSCE's Madrid principles, which set out the basis for negotiations to resolve the conflict, the spokeswoman said: 'The presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia confirmed their readiness to continue dialogue to complete work on this document with the mediation of Russia, the USA and France in their capacity as co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.'
After the previous meeting of the three presidents in Sochi on 25 January, the settlement process got bogged down in mutual accusations between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the degree to which each side accepted the Minsk principles.
The sticking point remains the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan wants Karabakh to remain part of Azerbaijan, while Armenia insists on the reverse.
While in St Petersburg, President Ilham Aliyev met the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group mediators – Ambassadors Robert Bradtke of the United States, Bernard Fassier of France and Igor Popov of Russia – as well as Andrzej Kasprzyk, personal representative of the OSCE chairman-in-office.
Ilham Aliyev has ended his working trip to Russia, AzerTAj news agency reported yesterday.
News.Az
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