Don’t Interfere with Karabakh Peace Process, Advises Russia’s Foreign Minister

A meeting of the foreign ministers of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia is expected to take place later this month, said Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov at a press conference in Moscow on Thursday.

Explaining the logic behind the upcoming meeting, Lavrov noted that the three countries’ foreign ministers meet before each round of negotiations on the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process, which takes place in the form of a trilateral meeting among the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia, reports RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun Radio).

“Russia, together with [Minsk Group Co-Chair countries] the United States and France, is making efforts to reach agreement in its talks on Karabakh,” said the Russian foreign minister.

Speaking about the usual round of meetings with the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan initiated by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Lavrov said such meetings have already taken place more than a dozen times and stated their goal.

“In addition to participating in the triad [OSCE Minsk Group], Russia, represented by President Dmitry Medvedev, uses its relations with Yerevan and Baku in line with already agreed approaches to try to find solutions in the format of meetings among the presidents of the three countries — Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia,” said Russia’s foreign minister

“The most important thing at this stage of the settlement is not interfering with the process, because as soon as organizations such as the UN and the OSCE get involved, the issue spills over from the field of discussion to the public debate arena,” he said.