Azernews.Az

MOSCOW – Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that such meetings as the OSCE summit held last week "cannot replace the hard work" on the resolution of crises, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

"This is the task of relevant negotiating formats that involve all sides in a given situation – be it Cyprus, Kosovo, Nagorno Karabakh, Transdniestr or Trans-Caucasia," Lavrov said while commenting on the OSCE summit, which took place December 1-2 in Astana.

He said that during summits attempts could be made to consolidate progress achieved during negotiations and to reinforce the agreements reached by the parties to conflicts.

"You have to act based on the ‘don’t make it worse’ principle here. This realistic approach allowed to adopt at the summit a weighed-up statement on Nagorno Karabakh settlement by the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders and the heads of the Russian, US and French delegations."

The Nagorno Karabakh conflict was high on the agenda of the OSCE summit, which was held in the Kazakh capital for the first time in the past 11 years. The statement, issued by Presidents Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan jointly with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said "the time has come for more decisive efforts" to resolve the Karabakh conflict.

The conflict began in 1988 due to Armenia’s territorial claims against Azerbaijan. The two countries fought a lengthy war that ended with the signing of a cease-fire in 1994. About 20 percent of Azerbaijani territory, including Nagorno Karabakh and seven adjacent regions, is still under the occupation of the Armenian armed forces. Numerous rounds of OSCE-brokered negotiations have been largely fruitless so far.