Atmosphere of trust is important for efficient talks
At the initiative of the PACE President, a meeting was held between Armenian and Azerbaijani delegates in Strasbourg on June 22, RA parliament's press service reports.
According to an early agreement, the meeting took place in an extended format with the participation of opposition representatives.
Present at the meeting were Armen Rustamyan and David Harutyunyan from the Armenian side, and Sabir Hajiyev and Samad Seyidov from the Azerbaijani side.
According to the Armenian delegates, the Azerbaijani side displayed a comparatively wiser stance and agreed that "no progress can be achieved unless the sides have clarified their future cooperation." Furthermore, they underlined that none of the PACE structures can replace the negotiation format mediated by the OSCE Minsk Group.
We urged that the sides continue the consultation until they found an answer to main questions. We questioned whether any PACE format with no experience and institutional capacity could play a role in the conflict settlement. Rashness in this question is inadmissible and endangers PACE rating.
We are against a platform that might turn into a theatre of new operations and entangle the tense situation. At this, the interlocutors accepted our proposal to continue consultations between the sides.
We also suggested involving other delegates in the consultations. The important achievement of this meeting was Azerbaijan's willingness to continue the cooperation, since up until now Azerbaijan was rejecting any proposal to cooperate in any format.
We expect official Baku to confirm the stance of its delegates. We reiterate our readiness to continue the consultations realizing that the atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence between the two peoples lays cornerstone for efficient talks," announced the Armenian delegates.
