August 15, 2002 - 19:41 AMT
MEETING IN SADARAK CAN URGE KARABAKH PROBLEM SETTLEMENT PROCESS, ARMENIAN AND AZERI PRESIDENTS SURE
The meeting in Sadarak will urge the process of the Nagorno Karabakh problem settlement. Armenian and Azeri Presidents stated it upon the completion of the meeting held August 14 near Sadarak settlement next to the border. At the same time they stressed that such meetings were useful and necessary. "We both comprehend the responsibility lying on us," - the Armenian leader Robert Kocharian said. In his words, it is especially important that, as the mediators assert, "if the Presidents come to agreement, the international community is ready to give the entire package of the necessary political and material resources to realize the arrangements made." As Azeri President Heydar Aliyev emphasized in his turn, the parties had considered many variants and positions, analyzed past meetings and come to the opinion that the negotiation potential, including for the direct meetings of the Presidents, had not been exhausted yet. "We have to preserve the cease-fire regime, continue peaceful negotiations, stimulate the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs' activities, use other opportunities to contribute to the solution of the problem," - Aliyev said. In his opinion, the meeting again assures that the Presidents of the two countries, simultaneously with the OSCE Minsk group Co-Chairs' activities, can continue the negotiation format and attain the conflict peaceful settlement. He also reported about the possibility of the next meeting of the Presidents in October in the course of the next summit of the CIS state leaders in Kishinev.