Baku has dismissed remarks from the Armenian president on proposals that should form the basis of talks on the Karabakh peace conflict. Serzh Sargsyan said yesterday that Armenia was ready to use proposals put forward in St Petersburg as a basis for talks on a Karabakh peace settlement and that it was now Azerbaijan's turn to make its position clear.
The proposals were made at a meeting in St Petersburg in June between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, mediated by Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev, in June.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Elkhan Polukhov said today that the meeting in St Petersburg had involved only one Minsk Group co-chairing state - Russia - so the proposals made there could not be considered an initiative of the OSCE Minsk Group mediators, 1 news.az reported.
"The format of the negotiating process on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict envisages proposals agreed by all the three co-chairing countries - Russia, the USA and France," Polukhov said.
"Russia made a working proposal in St Petersburg which does not influence the Madrid principles proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group. The format of the current negotiating process was confirmed in Athens in the statement of the foreign ministers of the OSCE Minsk group co-chairing states, then in Canada in a joint statement of the presidents of the United States, Russia and France on the sidelines of the G8 summit," Polukhov said
The ministry noted again that it is continuing the negotiating process to find a resolution to the Karabakh conflict on the basis of these statements which were made at the highest level by the countries co-chairing the OSCE Minsk Group, 1 news.az reported.
The Armenian president's comments on the St Petersburg proposals echo earlier statements by Azerbaijan that the negotiations would continue once Armenia had accepted as a basis for negotiations the updated Madrid principles, put forward by the OSCE Minsk Group mediators. The difference between the updated Madrid principles and St Petersburg proposals has not been made public.
News.Az
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