Armenia and Azerbaijan have taken as "home processing" Russia's proposals on easing tension in the region. Denis Gonchar, Director of the Fourth Department of the CIS Countries of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), said this in an interview with TASS.
"The last contacts at the level of foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia in Moscow on July 25 took place in an extremely difficult situation in Nagorno-Karabakh," said Gonchar. "Without revealing the sensitive details, I can say that we [i.e. Russia] have proposed compromise solutions for easing tension, which the parties will ‘process at home.’ We expect that humanitarian considerations, caring for ordinary people will prevail over the political differences between Baku and Yerevan."
The Russian diplomat drew attention to the fact that his country had the most active participation at all phases in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, and added that Russia continues its vigorous mediation efforts in all directions..
"Not everything is going as fast as we would like; but it is understandable, taking into account the many problems and disagreements that have accumulated during the years of the conflict," Gonchar continued. "Moreover, we [i.e. Russia] do not artificially speed up the work and do not try to hold meetings for the sake of meetings, which is often done by our Western partners."
As for the unblocking of economic and transport communications in the South Caucasus, the Russian diplomat noted that these matters are being discussed objectively by the tripartite working group under the co-chairmanship of the deputy prime ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.
According to Gonchar, Russia strives "for all arrangements in this regard to be in parity."
"One of the parties should not have the feeling that someone got more. The unblocking of transport communications—first of all, railway—will help open the huge economic potential of the South Caucasus and will be a powerful impetus for all directions of trilateral work," added the Russian diplomat.
