CONFLICTS IN TRANS-CAUCASUS MUST ONLY BE SETTLED BY PEACEFULLY
Interfax News Agency
June 24 2008
Russia
President Dmitry Medvedev has reaffirmed Russia’s position in favor of
an exclusively peaceful settlement of conflicts in the Trans-Caucasus
and of further settlement talks in the existing format.
"Russia’s priorities remain unchanged here. The hotbeds of crises in
the Trans-Caucasus must be ‘put out’ by using exclusively peaceful
means, in the formats already tested and in strict accordance with
international law," Medvedev said at a news conference in the Kremlin
on Tuesday after talks with Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.
Moscow and Yerevan have the same position on this issue, the Russian
president said.
Russia is "ready to facilitate the search for solutions that would meet
the interests of all peoples populating the region," Medvedev said.
"All this fully refers to the situation surrounding Nagorno Karabakh,"
he said.
The Russian president highly commended the mediatory role of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group in
the talks on Nagorno Karabakh.
Medvedev also said that he had held talks with the Armenian president
"on additional opportunities to intensify the talks on Nagorno
Karabakh, in which both parties are interested."
Russia is prepared to expand cooperation with Armenia in the
Commonwealth of Independent States and in the Collective Security
Treaty Organization, where Armenia will soon assume the rotating
presidency, he said.
Intensive Russia-Armenia interaction "guarantees stability and a
decent future for our common region," the Russian president said.
* * *
Russia and Armenia want the Nagorno Karabakh conflict to be settled
as soon as possible and will coordinate steps to ensure security in
the South Caucasus, says a joint statement capping the talks between
the Russian and Armenian presidents in Moscow on Tuesday.
"Russia and Armenia advocate the earliest possible settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, using exclusively peaceful means,
on an equitable basis, acceptable to both parties, and welcome the
constructive efforts being made by the co-chairmen of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group to forge a
political-diplomatic solution to the conflict," the statement says.
Moscow and Yerevan "will coordinate their foreign policies in order
to make joint and synchronized steps to strengthen security, stability
and broader cooperation in the South Caucasus, the statement says.
Russia and Armenia will also "further develop bilateral military-
technical cooperation, not targeted against third countries," it says.
The parties stated that they "recognize the central role of the
United Nations in maintaining international peace and security with
the regional organizations’ growing role in preventing conflicts and
in settling them peacefully."
Moscow and Yerevan reaffirmed the role of the Collective Security
Treaty Organization as an important guarantor of security for its
member- states.