Russia makes serious efforts to resolve Nagorno-Karabakh issue - Azerbaijan’s top diplomat

MOSCOW, March 6. /TASS/. Russia is exerting serious efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Azerbaijani Foreign Minister, Elmar Mammadyarov, told a news conference on Monday following talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. According to Mammadyarov, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh continues to be a major problem facing Azerbaijan. "Russia has made very serious efforts to resolve it, we discussed them in detail today," he said. "They are heard in both Azerbaijan and Armenia, there are certain prospects." "However, as the saying goes, one cannot dance the tango alone, so in this case everything depends not only on Azerbaijan but on Russia as well as an (OSCE Minsk Group) co-chair," the Azerbaijani foreign minister emphasized. "Of course, the Armenian side should play a big part too to adopt the proposals that are currently on the table." In addition to that, Lavrov and Mammadyarov discussed in detail the two countries’ economic cooperation. "The president’s visit to Iran ended yesterday. Part of the program there was discussion of the North-South Transport Corridor," Mammadyarov recalled. "Today we also discussed in detail with Sergey Viktorovich (Lavrov) how the Foreign Ministries should support all regional ministries in the implementation of this geostrategic project. We are very glad that Russia has considerable interest in this project." "We also discussed in detail the status of the Caspian Sea," Mammadyarov went on to say. "It should be the sea of peace and economic development, but by no means the sea of discord." The minister added that Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan see eye-to-eye on the delimitation of the Caspian Sea. "I believe that if three of the five counties were able to reach an agreement, that means that the atmosphere on which direction we should move has been created," he said. "Today we discussed what we should talk about at the next meeting of the Caspian states’ foreign ministers." Read more