The Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Slovakia Edward Nalbandian and Miroslav Lajcak held a meeting in Yerevan today. The two Ministers signed an agreement on Air Communication and a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of European integration.
“Azerbaijan has not been recognizing the Madrid Principles for a long time and if at last Baku has decided to take the documents as a basis for negotiations we can only welcome this fact,” RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at the joint press conference with his Slovak counterpart.
“However, Baku's statements show that the Azerbaijani side accepts the Madrid Principles with certain reservations. There are more reservations than points acceptable to Baku, which mainly refer to the elimination of conflict consequences,” Minister Nalbandian added.
He also informed that the sides keep on making working proposals on Madrid Principles. “Baku's statements concerning the documents are just a smoke screen,” FM stated, stressing that Armenian side continues to take Madrid Principles as basis for the peace process. Nalbanidan also noted that his Paris meeting with OSCE Co-Chairs was constructive.
The Slovak Foreign Minister said they support and welcome the signing of the Armenian-Turkish protocols and they would like the two countries to ratify the protocols as they are without linking them to other issues and without any preconditions.
“Turkey is a candidate for EU membership, which gives a certain status to that country. However, on the other hand, Turkey needs to meet all requirements and commitments in order to succeed,” he said.
As for the Karabakh issue, the European Union closely watches the process and supports the Minsk Group and the negotiations held on the basis of the Madrid Principles. He added that the European Union does not intend to join the process, since it's an issue addressed by the Minsk Group.
Public Radio of Armenia