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Talks on Nagorno-Karabakh closer to success now than ever before — Lavrov

However, Russian Foreign Minister said he will not disclose the details of agreements reached between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia at their meeting in St. Petersburg on June 20

BAKU, July 12. /TASS/. The sides in Nagorno-Karabakh settlement has moved much closer to success than ever before but it is too early to disclose the details, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday after talks with his Azerbajani counterpart Elmar Mammadyarov.

"We have grounds to think that we are now moving much closer to success than ever before," Lavrov said.

However, the foreign minister said he will not disclose the details of agreements reached between the leaders of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia at their meeting in St. Petersburg on June 20. "For obvious reasons, we are not publicly disclosing details of those ideas that were discussed at the meeting. The leaders of the three countries agreed after the meeting on June 20 that they will carefully treat those sprouts of hope that are appearing. Not because we are hiding something, it is just an ethical norm at negotiations," he added.

Talking about progress in talks on Nagorno-Karabakh, Lavrov especially noted his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev that took place on July 11. "The conversation was rather useful, and this will help us to move forward toward realization of the understanding reached by the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia at the meeting in St. Petersburg on June 20," the foreign minister concluded.

On April 2, the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh rapidly deteriorated when the parties to the Karabakh conflict accused each other of violating truce along the front line. The claims came from defense authorities of Armenia and of Azerbaijan.

On April 5 Azerbaijan’s Chief of Staff Col. Gen. Nadjmeddin Sadykov and his Armenian counterpart Col. Gen. Yury Khachaturov in Moscow with Russia’s mediation. At the talks the sides reached an agreement on cessation of hostilities at the contact line between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces. On the same day, the defense ministries of the two countries announced that the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh would start at 12am local time.

Though the ceasefire mostly holds, both sides continue to report occasional violations of ceasefire on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.

On May 16 the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan met in Vienna. Serzh Sargsyan and Ilham Aliyev agreed to "make steps to monitor observance of agreements on ceasefire and introduce a mechanism on investigating incidents." They also agreed to "possible resume the negotiations process on settling the conflict," the press service of the Armenian president said.

In the trilateral declaration adopted on June 20 after the meeting between the presidents of Russia, Armenia and Azerbaijan in St. Petersburg, the sides confirmed adherence to normalizing the situation on the contact line in Nagorno-Karabakh.