A mechanism to investigate ceasefire violations in Nagorno-Karabakh must be created, said Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan following a meeting with his Russian counterpart on Monday.
Sargsyan and Vladimir Putin met this afternoon in St Petersburg, ahead of a trilateral summit later in the day including the president of Azerbaijan.
“Our position on the Karabakh issue is known to all. We wish this issue to be settled exclusively by peaceful means. And I would like to thank Russia as a co-chair of the Minsk Group for the understanding and efforts it pays to this issue," Sargsyan said according to Armenpress.
“Regrettably, such conflicts are never settled at the wish of one party. We would be glad if we managed to make progress today towards the implementation of the agreements that we have achieved, in other words, to create mechanisms of investigating ceasefire violations. This would create a good working climate for talks.”
Sargsyan told reporters before seeing Putin that he expected to come to some kind of deal later on in St Petersburg. The meeting between Sargsyan and Aliyev will be the first since May 16.
“I expect that we will eventually come to an agreement in St. Petersburg and Azerbaijan will fulfil its obligations, there will not be any violations in the borders, and we will continue the negotiation process for the Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement,” he said.
Putin said Armenian-Russian relations are deepening. “We can say that our relations are developing more intensively within the framework of integration processes than before, which is very gladdening,” he told reporters on Monday.
“There is the opportunity and necessity to speak about how we are going to work from now on. Now Armenia heads the CSTO, and a high level meeting is due to take place in autumn.” Sargsyan agreed a meeting would take place in October.
SOURCE: commonspace.eu and agencies
PHOTO: Putin and Sargsyan, photo courtesy of Armenpress
