I. Popov: “The sides of conflict must manage to agree first of all”

As Russian co-chair of the OSCE MG Igor Popov told Russian “Ria Novosti” news agency NK issue settlement is actively discussed.

“The main principles of the conflict settlement are discussed and the principles must become the base for the issue settlement”, Popov told.

According to him three meetings of Presidents took place in a year and during those meetings Armenian and Azerbaijani Presidents managed to clarify some issues. According to Igor Popov though there are few issues left to discuss but “the remained ones are more complicated”.

He reminded about Sargsyan’s and Aliyev’s meeting on January in Sochi and also reminded about their plans to fasten the process of clarification.

“This attitude shows that the sides are ready to continue the negotiating process and they also intend to make efforts to get the accepted result”, Russian diplomat said.

Popov underlined that Russia, France and the USA (OSCE MG co-chairing countries) saw only peace solutions for the issue.

“The role of mediator is great. But I want to underline that the sides of conflict must manage to agree first of all”, Popov said.

OSCE Minsk Group is the main international platform for the NK issue settlement negotiations.