President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan, Dmitry Medvedev of Russia and Serzh Sargsyan of Armenia issued a joint statement on the outcomes of Sochi talks on the settlement of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
The statement reads: "The presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Russian Federation met January 23, 2012 in Sochi at the invitation of the President of Russian Federation and discussed the course and prospects of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict's settlement.
The Heads of State emphasized much should be done to settle the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and also emphasized a progress achieved since their meeting on November 2, 2008, when the Moscow Declaration was adopted. The presidents said as a result of intense negotiations the sides achieved progress in basic principles of the conflict's settlement.
Taking into consideration the importance of the transition to the development of the Peace Agreement, the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia expressed readiness to accelerate the achievement of the agreement on basic principles.
The two Presidents highly appreciated the mediation efforts of the Russian Federation and other countries and expressed hope that Russia, France and the USA will continue to play an active role in the settlement of the conflict.
The Presidents reaffirmed that one of the confidence-building measures for the settlement of Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is the development of cultural contacts between the sides of the conflict. In this regard, Presidents of the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia declared their readiness to promote the dialogue between intellectuals, scientific and social circles."

AzerTAc