Armenia’s acting PM, Azerbaijani President discuss Karabakh conflict settlement in St. Petersburg

Armenian acting PM Nikol Pashinyan and President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev had a conversation in the sidelines of the non-official meeting of the leaders of the CIS countries in St. Petersburg, Hikmet Hajiyev, head of Foreign Policy Affairs Department of Azerbaijani Presidential Administration said.

“During the conversation the parties discussed issues relating to the continuation of intensive talks over regulation of Karabakh conflict and strengthening the ceasefire regime,” Hajiyev told AzerTag.

He said it is necessary to note that these two aspects are closely tied with one another and are accomplishing one another.

“Recently relative calm has been noticed on the line of contact and the state border which is a good background for substantial and intensive negotiations over the settlement of the conflict. It should not result either in freezing the conflict or preserving the status-quo,” Hadjiyev said.

He stressed that Azerbaijan is for speedy change of Nagorno-Karabakh’s status quo.

“The significance of the change of the status-quo has many times been stressed on the level of the heads of the OSCE Minsk Group co-chairing countries. In the sidelines of negotiations the territorial integration of Azerbaijan must be restored,” Hajiyev stated.

He also stressed that during the meeting Pashinyan and Aliyev discussed the issue of exchange of "arrestees".

He commented on the operative communication established between the two countries. “Such communication exits. But it has not been established on the level of heads of the countries, foreign and defense ministers, but a level lower and is used in case of necessity,” he said.