Russia advocates for Armenia and Azerbaijan to develop a peace treaty that would mean sustainable long-term settlement, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said in an interview with Izvestia.
"We advocate for the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides - and Armenia and Azerbaijan are countries with which we have allied relations - to develop such a peace treaty that would pave the way and mean sustainable long-term settlement of relations, rather than laying a 'mine' for future generations," Mikhail Galuzin said.
He emphasized that Russia is against the conclusion of any hasty agreements between Armenia and Azerbaijan, as demanded by the West, which is very eager to push Armenia and Azerbaijan to conclude a peace treaty on any Western platform as soon as possible.
"Naturally, we are always ready to facilitate progress, and we oppose the conclusion of any hasty documents, as insisted by the West, which very much wants to push Armenia and Azerbaijan as soon as possible to conclude a peace treaty at some Western venue. Such hasty, ill-conceived, and not fully verified decisions may lead not to long-term sustainable peace but, on the contrary, plant some seeds of confrontation for the future, which, of course, we consider extremely undesirable neither for Armenia and Azerbaijan, nor for the South Caucasus, nor for Russia," Mikhail Galuzin said.
He called on the Armenian side to continue work on unblocking regional communications.
"Unfortunately, the work of the trilateral group headed by deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia on unblocking transport communications and resuming economic ties is now interrupted and frozen, if one can put it that way. Of course, we call on the parties, and primarily our Armenian friends, to return to work within this group," Mikhail Galuzin said.
Moscow is ready to provide all possible assistance to the parties if Baku and Yerevan desire so, the deputy FM stressed.
