Yerevan and Baku can make their positions closer on the threshold of G8 summit in St. Petersburg

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On the threshold of the G8 summit, which is to be held in St. Petersburg on July 15-17, issue of top priority in the Armenian agenda is worded as follows: will President Robert Kocharyan participate in the summit and will he meet Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev for talks on Nagorno Karabakh conflict settlement.

On June 4 and 5, in Bucharest, leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan failed to achieve any progress in the issues they were discussing. Upon returning to Yerevan Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan confirmed the presidents “failed to fix the progress.” And they failed despite the fact that OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs had proposed new wording and new approaches. “Nevertheless, foreign ministers of the two countries were told to continue the talks and try to find common grounds,” Vardan Oskanyan said. It was earlier reported that foreign ministers of the two countries are to meet in Paris on June 13. During the talks, the parties are to try to get their positions closer and to pave the way for the next meeting of the presidents.

Some analysts tend to think that the date of another Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting is not far off: the presidents will have such opportunity in the near future, namely at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg. “This is quite an important factor, and the co-chairs believed that if they managed to agree on key issues before the G8 summit, it will be the best guarantee if the international community does its best to implement these agreements in all aspects of security, economic, financial, and political cooperation. These time limits forced to speed up the process to some extent,” Kocharyan said.

It is a month left before the G8 summit, Armenian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers are to meet today, and it should not be ruled out that they succeed in getting the positions closer and come to an agreement on some principles, preparing by this a good basis for the Kocharyan-Aliyev meeting.