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SOCHI, Russia (Combined Sources)—Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed on a preamble to the so-called
“Madrid Principles” for the resolution of the Karabakh conflict,
which calls for the imperative participation of the latter in
the talks and sets nations’ right to self-determination as a
priority for conflict resolution, said sources with knowledge of
the document, reported news.am.
The announcement of the agreement was made by
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after Armenian President
Serzh Sarkisian and his Russian and Azeri counterparts Dmitry
Medvedev and Ilham Aliyev met in a ski resort near the Black Sea
city of Sochi.
The meeting, which began with the
participation of the three foreign ministers, continued with the
three presidents meeting in private.
None of the three presidents made public
statements after more than two hours of negotiations, reported
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
“The conversation was useful,” Lavrov told
journalists. “The participants discussed the concrete proposals
that were presented by the co-chairs. There is a common
understanding — and everybody confirmed that — on the document’s
preamble.”
“Today the main result was that although some
parts of the document are not agreed on by the parties, the
parties will prepare their own concrete ideas and formulations
that would be added to the text. We are confident that this will
help the co-chairs in their further work,” he said.
Lavrov refused to elaborate on the
understandings and remaining sticking points. “This is a subject
of negotiations between the parties,” he explained.
Aliyev and Sarkisian were due to hold more
talks in the presence of the French, Russian and US Minsk Group
co-chairs later on Friday.
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