Armenia’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility of yet another meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers later this month.
The ministry spokeswoman, Anna Naghdalian, said that Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanian will participate in an annual security conference that will be held in Munich, Germany on February 16-18. “As far as we know, Azerbaijan’s foreign minister [Elmar Mammadyarov] has also confirmed his participation [in the conference,]” she told a news briefing in Yerevan.
Commenting on the possibility of Mammadyarov and Mnatsakanian meeting on the sidelines of the Munich forum, Naghdalian said: “Whenever there is an agreement on a meeting between the two ministers we announce it in a coordinated manner … We have always adhered to that principle and we will not breach it if there is such an agreement.”
Mnatsakanian and Mammadyarov have met for four times in the last seven months. According to international mediators, at their most recent talks held in Paris on January 16 the ministers acknowledged the need for “taking concrete measures to prepare the populations for peace.”
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have also held a series of talks in recent months. Their last meeting took place in Davos, Switzerland on January 22. It fuelled more talk of major progress in long-running efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Pashinian downplayed last week his “informal contacts” with Aliyev. He also stated that the Armenian side will not agree to territorial concessions Azerbaijan in return for mere peace in the region. “We can’t even discuss the lands-for-peace formula,” he said.
The Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry criticized those remarks, saying that “withdrawal of Armenian from the occupied Azerbaijani territories” has long been at the heart of the negotiation process mediated by the United States, Russia and France. “Does that statement by Pashinian mean a renunciation of negotiations?” it said in a statement.
Naghdalian insisted in this regard that Yerevan remains committed to further negotiations with Baku under the aegis of the OSCE Minsk Group co-headed by the three world powers. “For Armenia the status and security of Artsakh (Karabakh) are the overriding priorities in this process,” she said.