Negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh settlement has started at the Konstantinovsky Palace in Strelna. Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a tripartite meeting with the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan.
Before that the Russian leader held two separate meetings with the Presidents of the two countries.
Ilham Aliyev thanked the Russian leader for the initiative to hold a trilateral meeting and expressed hope that the negotiations "will bring constructive dynamics," Interfax reports.
Presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia agreed to give additional impetus to the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said following the talks.
According to him, the heads of states expressed their commitment to the normalization of the situation at the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh and agreed to increase the number of OSCE observers.
‘‘In addition we have mapped out concrete measures to intensify the negotiating process.
Presidents agreed on a tripartite declaration reaffirming their commitment to normalization of the situation on the contact line and to increase the number of OSCE observers in the conflict zone in order to create necessary conditions for steady progress in the negotiations on a political settlement of the conflict,'' the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"Putin, Aliyev and Sargsyan agreed on a tripartite statement the commitment of the fact that there was steady progress in the political settlement," Tass cites Lavrov as saying.
Putin, Aliyev and Sargsyan held constructive talks and they expressed their readiness to give additional impetus to the negotiations, the Minister added.
"The result of the talks between the presidents was the fact that we on the right way toward the settlement of the conflict," Lavrov said.
