On July 17, in Almaty, Kazakhstan Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian participated in the Informal Meeting of the OSCE Foreign Ministers, dedicated to the issues of strengthening security in Europe. The delegations of 56 member-states of the OSCE, as well as high-ranking representatives of the UN, OSCE, CSTO, CIS, EU and NATO attended the meeting organized by the Kazakh Chairmanship at the OSCE.
The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev opened the Meeting of Foreign Ministers.
At the meeting, Edward Nalbandian delivered a speech, in which he presented Armenia’s approaches towards the maintenance of security in Europe.
Within the margins of the OSCE Foreign Ministers Meeting, the Armenian Foreign Minister also participated in the Meeting of Foreign Ministers of the CSTO member states, as well as had a number of bilateral meetings.
During the meeting between Edward Nalbandian and Sergey Lavrov, the Foreign Ministers of Armenia and Russia, a number of issues of bilateral agenda, as well as preparatory works of the upcoming visit of the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Armenia were discussed.
In the course of the meeting of Minister Nalbandian and the Foreign Minister of Estonia Urmas Paet, they discussed the steps that are undertaken towards the enlargement of legal framework. The sides agreed to sign an Agreement on waiving visa requirement for holders of diplomatic passports during the next meeting on ministerial level, as well as to undertake steps for the signing of an Agreement for the Promotion and Protection of Investments.
In Almaty Edward Nalbandian had a meeting with David Liddington, the UK Minister of State for Europe. During the talks, they discussed a number of issues of mutual interest.
The UK Minister of State for Europe expressed the gratitude of his Government for the important contribution of Armenia to the peacekeeping mission in Afghanistan.
Edward Nalbandian and David Liddington touched upon the recent developments in the negotiation process on the settlement of the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) issue.
During the meeting of Edward Nalbandian with Audronius Ažubalis, the Foreign Minister of Lithuania that assumes the OSCE Chairmanship for 2011, they touched upon a number of bilateral, regional and international issues, Armenia-EU cooperation.
The Ministers exchanged views on issues concerning the maintenance of security in the South Caucasus, as well as the existing problems and ways of their settlement.
Accepting Edward Nalbandian’s invitation to visit Armenia, the Foreign Minister of Lithuania informed that he would visit Yerevan at the beginning of the next year.
Within the margins of the OSCE Ministerial, a meeting of Heads of delegations of Armenia, Russia, France, United States and Azerbaijan took place, during which they discussed the recent developments in the process of the settlement of the Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) issue. The Heads of delegations of the Co-Chair countries expressed regret at the recent events, including the armed incident on the night of 18th to 19th of June and inflammatory public statements, which increase tension in the region and do not help the settlement process. The Heads of delegations of the OSCE Minsk Group urged the sides to undertake steps to reinforce the ceasefire of 1994. Mentioning the principles of non use of force or threat of use of force, territorial integrity and the equal rights and self determination of peoples, as well as provisions included in the statements of Presidents Medvedev, Obama and Sarkozy in l’Aquila and Muskoka as a basis for the settlement of Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh) issue, they stressed that any attempt to select some elements over the others are unacceptable.