WARSAW, Poland (A.W.)—Armenian President Serge Sarkisian met with United States Secretary of State John Kerry in Warsaw on July 8 to discuss the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh/NKR) conflict.
Sarkisian, who is on a working visit to Poland, arrived in the country earlier that day to participate in a meeting of the heads of state and government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member and non-member states dedicated to the “Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan,” reported the press office of the president of Armenia.
During the meeting—which was also attended by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group U.S. Co-Chair James Warlick—Sarkisian commended the U.S.’s ongoing commitment to a peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Sarkisian also thanked Kerry for his efforts to ease tensions through the two joint statements released in Vienna and St. Petersburg in the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack against Karabagh in early April.
According to the press statement, Sarkisian also expressed his condolences to Kerry regarding the tragic incident that took place in Dallas, Texas on July 7, which resulted in the death of five police officers.
Sarkisian and Kerry also talked about the telephone conversation between U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 6, during which Putin’s June 20 trilateral meeting with Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was discussed. According to a press statement released by the White House, during the conversation Obama conveyed his “readiness to intensify efforts” along with Russia and France, as co-chairs of the Minsk Group, in order to achieve a comprehensive settlement to the Karabagh conflict.
Last week, Kerry spoke with Sarkisian and Aliyev in separate phone calls to discuss the peaceful settlement of the conflict. Spokesperson for the United States Department of State John Kirby said in a press briefing on June 30 that Kerry noted “positively” that the ceasefire along the NKR Line of Contact (LoC) and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border has largely held in recent weeks. In his conversations, he also urged the presidents to “avoid tensions to advance the peace process.”
I wish they would stop flirting with each other and get on with the serious matter of resolving the problems at hand.
I am deeply concerned that nothing will come out of this meeting.
There has been no response from the State Dept or the OSCE Minsk Group to the Royce-Engel peace proposals. Utter silence.
Sadly, it appears that members of the OSCE Minsk Group are satisfied with the status quo, and no real effort is being made to reach to a comprehensive settlement. Indeed, there is more pressure on Armenia and NKR despite the aggressions of the Azeris.
Vart Adjemian
How endless nightmare…Negotiations, meetings, conciliations… What about result? Please tell me?