Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – Russia hopes that a statement will be signed on settling the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict over Nagorno Karabakh at the upcoming OSCE summit in Astana, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with the Voice of Russia.

"Ahead of the Astana summit, they [the co-chairs of the mediating OSCE Minsk Group] met with the leadership of Armenia and Azerbaijan," Lavrov said. "They are tasked with preparing a declaration in time for the Astana summit, which Baku, Yerevan and the co-chairs could sign. We hope this will be possible," he said.

The Karabakh issue will be discussed at the summit due in the Kazakh capital December 1-2. The Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents are due to hold talks on the sidelines of the summit. During the Russian-brokered meeting held in Astrakhan on October 27, the presidents instructed their foreign ministers to reach agreement on the basic principles of the conflict resolution by the Astana summit.

According to Lavrov, recently a relative lull has been reported on the line of contact between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops. "But I can not say that at the Astana summit, a real breakthrough will be achieved in terms of the conflict settlement. This is very painstaking work," Lavrov said.

He said that Russia is facilitating the resolution of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict as one of the three co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, as well as in its national capacity, "given our good neighborly relations" with both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

"Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is personally involved in this issue. He has already held seven or eight meetings with the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents, during which there were serious attempts to get to the bottom of the outstanding divergences and get past differences of opinion. His aim is to develop the first comprehensive document titled ‘Key Principles of Resolution’, which will set guidelines for working out a legally binding final peace accord," the minister said.

According to him, agreement has been reached on the overwhelming majority of principles that could underpin Karabakh settlement. "However, there are still some serious problems," he added.