First round of official talks between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has ended. Their meeting lasted three and a half hours and, according to the OSCE Minsk Group’s French co-chairman Stefan Visconti, was "effective and fruitful."
Immediately after their meeting, leaders of the two countries preferred not to reveal the results - it was obviously mutual agreement. Nikol Pashinyan briefly reported that the meeting was “normal”, while Ilham Aliyev suggested to wait for the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs' statement. Statement was published on the website of the Minsk Group in a couple of hours. They noted that the meeting "was held in positive and constructive atmosphere and gave two leaders opportunity to clarify their positions." Aliyev and Pashinyan exchanged views on a number of key issues in the settlement process, as well as ideas on substance of negotiations.
More interesting details were revealed later: “Both leaders stressed the importance of creation of environment conducive to peace, as well as further discussion about steps in the negotiation process that are necessary to find peaceful solution to the conflict. Recalling their conversation in Dushanbe, leaders reaffirmed the need to strengthen ceasefire regime and improve direct contacts. They also agreed to develop a number of measures in the humanitarian sphere. President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan requested Foreign Ministers of their respective countries to meet with co-chairs in the near future. They also agreed to continue direct dialogue."
After the OSCE Minsk Group's statement was published, President of Azerbaijan said: "Negotiation process should be supported by humanitarian actions. It's important for format of negotiations to remain unchanged, negotiations between Armenia and Azerbaijan are under way, just like it has been for many years," TASS quoted him as saying. "Negotiation process has been given a new impulse, we assessed statement of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group very positively, which shows that changes in the negotiation format can be made only with consent of the two parties," Ilham Aliyev said. Round of negotiations with Pashinyan in Vienna was diplomatically beneficial for Baku, since it showed that negotiation format can't be changed. Agreement between Pashinyan and Aliyev to “continue direct dialogue” noted by co-chairs of the Minsk Group confirms this.
Nikol Pashinyan noted that there was no breakthrough at the talks - however, neither Baku nor Yerevan thought that would happen. "Now it's time to think about following issues. For example, can parties of the conflict make efforts to stabilize situation on the contact line, can parties ensure that border villages live a normal life, do agricultural work without fear of attacks," Armenian Prime Minister said at a meeting with Armenian diaspora of Austria. Pashinyan didn't mention participation of Karabakh separatists in the negotiation process. According to him, it's important that now parties can talk about their ideas, problems and agendas. There was another remarkable detail - Nikol Pashinyan himself spoke about “Armenian-Azerbaijani border” and “contact line”, not of fictional “border” between the unrecognized “Nagorno-Karabakh Republic” and Azerbaijan.
So far there are no further details about negotiations. For example, what kind of "measures in the humanitarian sphere" will be worked out by Yerevan and Baku remains unknown.
