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Russia sees settlement of Karabakh conflict as priority [UPDATE]

16 November 2017 15:00 (UTC+04:00)
Russia sees settlement of Karabakh conflict as priority [UPDATE]

By Rashid Shirinov

Settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is a priority for Russia, said Russian Foreign Ministry’s Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova at a briefing on November 16.

“This issue is one of the priorities for us, because we are talking about our neighbors,” said the spokeswoman.

She added that Russia closely cooperates with other OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs and continues to assist Azerbaijan and Armenia in search for peaceful, mutually acceptable solutions.

Russia, along with the U.S. and France, is a co-chair state of the OSCE Minsk Group established to broker a peace over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. The country can be called the most active co-chair of the MG, as the Russian president and FM have numerously held trilateral meetings with Azerbaijani and Armenian heads of state and foreign ministers in order to accelerate the settlement process of the long-standing conflict.

Moreover, Russia brokered a truce between Armenia and Azerbaijan on April 5 last year to stop the April clashes in Nagorno-Karabakh between the conflicting countries, which are also called “the four-day war”.

Zakharova also noted at the briefing that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will pay an official visit to Azerbaijan on November 20.

“He is expected to have talks with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov. During the meeting, it is planned to exchange views on a wide range of issues of the bilateral, international and regional agenda,” added the spokeswoman.

Zakharova further said Azerbaijan is Russia’s important strategic partner in the Caucasus region.

“This year we mark the 25th anniversary since the establishment of diplomatic relations between our countries,” she said. “Not only the long-standing traditions of friendship and mutual respect, but also the coincidence or proximity of positions on key issues of the regional and international agenda stand on the bases of the Russia-Azerbaijan cooperation.”

The spokeswoman added that the regular friendly contacts between the Russian and Azerbaijani presidents set high dynamics to the development of bilateral relations and allow to promptly resolve any emerging issues.

Diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries were established in 1992. The strategic partnership relations are based on old traditions of friendship and good neighborliness, as well as equality, respect for each other’s interests, and common history and culture.

Azerbaijan is one of the main economic partners of Russia among the CIS countries. Interregional cooperation plays an important role in the development of Russian-Azerbaijani trade and economic relations and the increase in trade turnover, which amounted to $951.32 million in January to June 2017.

At present, enterprises of some 71 regions of the Russian Federation cooperate directly with Azerbaijan. Fifteen regions of Russia have relevant agreements with Azerbaijan on trade and economic, scientific, technical and cultural cooperation.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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