Azerbaijan, Baku, July 8 /Trend E.Tariverdiyeva/
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has prepared a message to Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan, following discussions held in Kazan.
The message includes proposals on the vision of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution that was recently discussed at the meeting of the three presidents with representatives of the OSCE Minsk Group.
"I am pleased to hand over these proposals to You," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in Baku. "I hope that You will react to the proposals after studying them."
Lavrov said Russia fully shares Baku's position on the development of the Russian-Azerbaijani relations.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov will soon a pay an official visit to Russia, Lavrov said.
"The sides will exchange instruments of ratification of the Treaty on the state border between Russia and Azerbaijan and adopt a number of decisions aimed at strengthening the foreign-policy cooperation. Once again, I thank you for the opportunity to meet and hand over these
proposals on President Medvedev's instructions," Lavrov said.
Presidents Ilham Aliyev, Dmitry Medvedev and Serzh Sargsyan discussed, the basic principles of the Karabakh conflict settlement in Kazan on June 24. The meeting - ninth in the last three years ended without reaching agreement on the basic principles of settlement. A joint statement issued after the meeting noted the progress towards this goal.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and 7 surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group - Russia, France, and the U.S. - are currently holding the peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.