Sargsyan-Aliyev Meetings Always Take Place in ‘Atmosphere of Tough Debate’: Medvedev

Meetings between Armenia’s and Azerbaijan’s presidents are quite useful, first, because, in any case, negotiations are always better than the active phase of the conflict. Second, they are not only negotiations, but a step forward, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, summing up the trilateral meeting of presidents which took place in the Russian city of Astrakhan yesterday.

“You know, it’s already the seventh time that I spend in such events, and, in general, though they’re not easy meetings, they always take place in an atmosphere of tough debate, sometimes with emotions; this isn’t easy also for the mediating parties, the Minsk Group, as well as for Russia, as a co-chair country with the Minsk Group,” he said. 

“It is very important,” said the Russian president in comments released by the Kremlin. “The two sides have not been in direct, open confrontation for a long time, but there are problems, there is shooting, people are dying.”

Medvedev said he hoped the two countries could agree on the first step in resolving the conflict — a deal on the basic principles of a resolution — in time for a summit of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kazakhstan on December 1-2, reports AFP. 

“We have come a certain way, which gives grounds to hope that if the sides work well over the next month… we could reach an agreement on the common principles of resolution,” he said.