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12 July 2016

Trend

The talks held with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev in Baku on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict were quite useful and will make it possible to move forward in the conflict’s settlement after the meetings in St. Petersburg and Vienna, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Lavrov made the remarks in Baku July 12 at a joint press conference with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov.

President Aliyev met with FM Lavrov on July 11 in Baku.

“Russia and Azerbaijan have partnership relations,” Lavrov further said. “We have an intensive political dialogue.”

He said the economic and trade relations of the two countries demand special attention.

Lavrov also pointed out that the dynamics of cooperation in the humanitarian sphere is satisfactory.

Russia’s foreign minister said the details of the meetings on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict are not discussed for known reasons.

It is necessary to be careful towards those “sprouts of hope” so that not to hamper the progress, said Lavrov, adding that this is the ethic norm of any diplomatic process.

“But there are grounds to presume that currently we are closer to success than ever before,” he added.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.

The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.