Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran to discuss situation in Nagorny-Karabakh in Baku

BAKU, April 7. /TASS/. Foreign Ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran - Sergey Lavrov, Elmar Mammadyarov and Javad Zarif are to hold talks in the Azeri capital of Baku. During the trilateral meeting the parties will discuss long-term transport projects and problems of multilateral cooperation in the Caspian Sea region. Initially the meeting was to focus on the regional cooperation. Now, according to Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, the issue of Nagorny-Karabakh will be the main topic on the agenda following recent aggravation of the conflict in that region. On Wednesday, Lavrov met with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. According to the minister, Russia is ready to contribute to the maintenance of the ceasefire in Nagorny Karabakh. "We have proposals, we try to promote them more actively in order to achieve agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia," Lavrov said. "It is very important to take some confidence-building measures in the near future and create conditions for the resumption of the political process," he added. In his turn, the Azeri leader stressed that his country is ready to continue negotiations on the settlement of Nagorny Karabakh conflict. "We are committed to the continuation of negotiations. Azerbaijan is committed to the negotiation process, the settlement of the conflict by peaceful means based on international law," Aliyev said. According to him, that is "the only way to prevent an escalation." Overnight to April 2, hostilities erupted on the line disengaging warring sides in Nagorny-Karabakh. Later, the parties to the conflict accused each other of the ceasefire violations. On Tuesday, chiefs of Armenian and Azeri Armed Forces’ General Staffs reached an agreement to cease fire at 11.00 Moscow time (08.00 am UTC) on April 5. Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation with his counterparts from Azerbaijan and Armenia Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan assured that Moscow "will take necessary intermediary steps to promote the normalization of the situation." Sergey Lavrov stressed earlier that "all parties are making efforts to stop the fire in Nagorny-Karabakh and not to let it resume." At the same time there are external parties interested in the escalation of the conflict, he said. At the moment, it is very important to ensure the ceasefire and to return to the talks, in particular under the OSCE aegis. As a mediator and co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia is taking active diplomatic efforts. On April 8, Sergey Lavrov is to meet with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian "on the sidelines" of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers in Moscow. On April 21-22, he will visit Yerevan. Caspian Sea, economy, energy The Ministers may touch upon the oil market situation, pricing issues, as well as future economic and transport projects. They are likely to pay particular attention to the issues of the Caspian Sea. Earlier five Caspian countries agreed on the need to sign the Convention on the legal status of the Caspian Sea. The work has been on for more than fifteen years. Some of the five countries concluded a number of bilateral agreements on the demarcation of the Caspian Sea. The main areas of economic development and cooperation in the water area are: mining, navigation, fishing. Earlier Russian Foreign Minister said Moscow supports the idea of the Caspian Sea becoming a "sea of ​​peace, good neighborliness to ensure transparency of military construction within a reasonable sufficiency" and letting the Caspian countries solve all issues related to the use of this reservoir," Lavrov said. Iranian agenda It is likely that Foreign Ministers of Russia and Iran will also have a separate meeting. The Russian-Iranian agenda, in particular includes the implementation of the joint comprehensive action plan on the Iranian nuclear program, supply of S-300 systems, Su-24 fighters to Tehran. Under the action plan, Russia and Iran are working on the issue of the production of stable isotopes at the Fordo facility. There has been an ungrounded excitement on behalf of the US around the supply of S-300 and Russian fighter jets to Iran. Although Washington recognizes that these types of weapons are not covered by the UN Security Council ban, it still believes that such steps will allegedly destabilize the situation. In response Moscow reminded Washington that the arms embargo against Iran does not exist anymore. "A new, permissive procedure for the supply of weapons and their components to Iran has been approved. It deals with seven categories of the UN Register of Conventional Arms. As for S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, they are not mentioned in the registry. These systems can be delivered to Iran without any permission. Even a notification is not necessary," a source with Russia’s Foreign Ministry told TASS. Read more