Russian prime minister Dmitri Medvedev met with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan on Friday, while Russian officials said President Putin could be meeting Sargsyan later this month.
Medvedev and Sargsyan met in Yerevan at a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council, a regular get-together for the heads of government of the six Eurasian Economic Union countries. President Sargsyan informed Medvedev about his discussions with president Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan in Vienna, which took place earlier this week.
“We’ve reached an agreement on the monitoring of ceasefire violations and implementation of a mechanism of investigation of border incidents,” said Sargsyan. “We’re ready to do our best to exclude ceasefire violation, and I do hope that the Foreign Ministers of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries will be consistent in implementing the decisions,” he said.
The meeting in Yerevan was originally intended to take place on April 8, but because of the four-day war between Armenia and Azerbaijan it was moved to Moscow. Armenia joined the EEU in 2013, but Azerbaijan is not a member.
Medvedev reiterated his support for the current ceasefire regime in Nagorno-Karabakh. “We welcome your meeting with the President of Azerbaijan in Vienna, and support the efforts within the framework of the OSCE Mink Group aimed at maintaining dialogue, and preventing such incidents in the future,” Medvedev told the Armenian president.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Russian ministry of foreign affairs told reporters president Vladimir Putin could meet with Serzh Sargsyan on May 31 in Astana, Kazakhstan, at a summit for heads of state of the EEU countries.
Russia plays a key role in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, selling arms to both Armenia and Azerbaijan. However it sells arms to Armenia at favourable rates because it is an EEU ally. Russia helped broker the precarious agreement to end the recent fighting, on April 5.
SOURCE: commonspace.eu and agencies
PHOTO: Medvedev and Sargsyan
