The Armenian Foreign Ministry has confirmed that a meeting between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan will take place in Paris on Saturday. The meeting will be the first official contact between the two countries since the two foreign ministers met last on 18 June. The meeting between Elmar Mammadyarov of Azerbaijan and Edward Nalbandian of Armenia will be facilitated by diplomats from the three co-Chair countries of the OSCE Minsk Process - Russia, France and the United States.
Commonspace.eu political editor said that "the long break in the negotiations had caused considerable concern in the international community, amidst fears that Azerbaijan was considering walking away from the peace process. The period was also marked by sharp verbal exchanges between the two countries, especially in the aftermath of the release of Ramil Safarov after his return to Azerbaijan from Hungary. However overall the situation on the line of contact has been relatively calm in recent weeks.
It is unlikely that any major breakthroughs will be achieved in Paris on Saturday but the mediators will be pushing for an early meeting between the two Presidents, although this meeting will not take place unless some progress is made before in putting the negotiations back on track. It would be wrong for anybody to see the meeting on Saturday as progress. It must be accepted for what it is, which is a modest effort for a restart of the negotiations."
source:commonspace.eu
photo: Edward Nalbandian and Elmar Mamadyarov at an earlier meeting (archive photo).
