Expected pre-election period in Armenia cannot hinder to continue negotiation process – MFA spox

No agreement on the meeting of the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan has been reached during the Brussels meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers, Armenia’s foreign ministry spokesperson Tigran Balayan told reporters at a briefing on July 16, reminding that the visit was of cognitive nature.

“I can only say that there is an agreement to continue the contacts. And also an opinion was voiced at non-official level that it’s necessary to give a pause as maybe an election period launches in Armenia, and then to continue after that. But we think that the pre-election period cannot be an obstacle for the negotiation process which should be held based on the proposals of the Co-Chairs and for the progress aimed at creating an atmosphere contributing to peace”, Tigran Balayan said.

He reaffirmed that the most important for Armenia in the negotiation process is the issue of security and status of Artsakh.

Asked whether Armenia doesn’t see a need to boost the dynamics of the negotiations, the foreign ministry spokesperson said Armenia has always been active, moreover, it tries to contribute to the implementation of proposals aimed at establishing peace, which one cannot say about Azerbaijan. “The issue of ensuring atmosphere contributing to peace has been discussed in the most direct way. That is the implementation of agreements reached after the April aggression, in Vienna, St. Petersburg and Geneva. The talk is about increasing the capacities of the team of the Personal Representative of the OSCE i-in-Office and their deployment in the line of contact so that they can control the situation. The third one, which is also very important, is the installation of investigative mechanisms for incidents. There are proposals in this regard, but you know that it is more than two years Azerbaijan undermines the implementation of these agreements”, the MFA spokesman said.