Foreign Minister of Armenia welcomes results of St. Petersburg meeting on Karabakh

 Foreign Minister of Armenia Edward Nalbandian believes the meeting of the Russian, Armenia and Azerbaijani presidents in St. Petersburg on June 20 was quite constructive. 

Talking to reporters, Nalbandian said: "The meeting was quite useful and I can state with some caution that it was held in a constructive situation," Nalbandian said. In his words, the presidents have come to an understanding concerning a range of issues. "If an arrangement is made on the given issues, it will be possible to make a progress in the settlement process," he said.

Nalbandian explained that the leaders agreed to continue the meetings at the highest level and at the level of the foreign ministers. "The process will be continued under the OSCE MG chairmanship," the minister said.  "It is not for nothing that the OSCE MG co-chairs representing Russia, France and U.S. were invited at the final stage of the talks."
The minister said the presidents agreed to expand the powers of the OSCE CiO Personal Representative's team. Nalbandian recalled that in the period between the meetings in Vienna on May 16 and St. Petersburg on June20, Azerbaijan had been repeatedly making "statements that could hardly be called constructive." In this light, the minister expressed concern that Azerbaijan is conducting large-scale military exercise involving 25,000 troops, heavy artillery and armory, while the leaders were meeting in St. Petersburg. "I do not think that it is a display of a constructive approach prior to such meeting," Minister Nalbandian said.

Presidents of  Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia met in Saint Petersburg on June 20 2016 at the behest of Vladimir Putin. Reaching a settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict was the subject of discussion at the meeting, which took place behind closed doors, according to the Kremlin press-office.  

Following the consultations, the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan adopted a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to normalizing the situation on the line of contact and giving their approval to an increase in the number of OSCE observers working in the conflict zone. The joint statement also expresses the parties' commitment to putting in place the conditions required for steady progress in negotiations on a political settlement to the conflict.

The presidents made a point of their regular contacts on Karabakh and agree to continue them in such format as addition to the efforts by the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs who were invited to the final stage of the meeting in St. Petersburg.
Earlier in the day, President of Russia Vladimir Putin held separate meetings with the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders.