MOSCOW, July 26. /TASS/. Moscow expects that further Baku-Yerevan talks that the three countries’ foreign ministers agreed to hold at a meeting on Tuesday will take place in the coming months, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing on Wednesday.
On July 25, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met with his Azerbaijanian and Armenian counterparts, Jeyhun Bayramov and Ararat Mirzoyan, respectively.
"The process of reconciling the two nations that are fraternal to Russia should cover the humanitarian sphere as well. <…> It is necessary to create a positive atmosphere for continuing dialogue between public figures, experts and religious leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia with Russia’s mediation, as well as for resuming trilateral interparliamentary communication to build trust between the two countries," the Russian diplomat said. According to her, although bringing relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan back to normal has not been easy, there is no alternative to peace.
"Among other things, related issues were discussed at a trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in Moscow yesterday. We expect that the aforementioned further meetings will take place in the next few months," Zakharova added.
Following Tuesday’s talks, Lavrov said that the sides had agreed to make efforts to resume dialogue between civil societies and experts. Also, he said, Russia proposed launching a trilateral dialogue at the level of lawmakers. "We will continue strenuous efforts to organize further meetings. There are plans to hold another summit of the Russian, Azerbaijani, and Armenian leaders this year," Russia’s top diplomat said.