Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the talks between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on the Nagorno Karabakh issue were very effective and efficient, the participants were able to reach an agreement and signed a joint statement on the development of the region.
“RIA Novosti” news agency reported.
“I consider today’s meeting extremely important and useful, since we were able to agree and signed a joint statement on the development of the situation in the region, meaning concrete steps to build economic ties and develop infrastructure projects,” Putin said after the talks in Moscow.
He specified that for this purpose a working group will be created, which will be headed by vice-prime ministers of the governments of three countries – Azerbaijan, Armenia and Russia. In the near future, they will create working expert subgroups, the President of the Russian Federation added.
It should be noted that the meeting of RA Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev ended in the Kremlin.
Earlier, Mane Gevorgyan informed that the pre-planned agenda of the trilateral meeting is of economic nature, which refers to the opening of regional communications, international cargo transportation, including from Armenia to the Russian Federation, the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as from central parts of Armenia via Nakhichevan to Syunik region.
“The Azerbaijani side and some Armenian circles are constantly circulating the topic of the so-called “Meghri Corridor”, but as it has been mentioned many times, the trilateral statement of 9 November does not include any provision on creating a corridor through Meghri or Armenia.
For the Armenian side, however, the issue of the return of the captives, the search and rescue operations of our soldiers left in the rear of the Azeris, the search for the bodies of the victims, the fate of the missing are crucial. Without a solution to these issues or significant progress, it will be extremely difficult to effectively discuss the economic agenda, and the Armenian side considers the discussion of this issue one of the key topics of the Moscow meeting.
I would also like to emphasize that Moscow does not plan to sign a document on the settlement of the Karabakh issue or any territorial issue. If it is possible to reach an agreement on the issues on the agenda, ie economic issues, the exchange of prisoners, the issue of missing persons, it is possible to sign a joint statement on the results of the meeting,” Mane Gevorgyan said.
