Azerbaijan, Baku, 14 March / corr. Trend A. Agayeva/ The President of Azerbaijan is not opposed to meeting with Serj Sarkisyan, the new President of Armenia.
The newly-elected President of Armenia Serj Sarkisyan is prepared to meet with the Azerbaijani President within the framework of the NATO summit to be held on 2-4 April, Vardan Oskanyan, Armenian foreign minister said in Yerevan on 13 March.
"If the co-chairmen put forward a proposal and Azerbaijani President takes part in the NATO summit, President Ilham Aliyev will consider the proposal," Novruz Mammadov, the head of the Department for the International Affairs of the Presidential Administration of Azerbaijan said to Trend on 14 March.
The conflict between the two countries of the South Caucasus began in 1988 due to Armenian territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Since 1992, Armenian Armed Forces have occupied 20% of Azerbaijan including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and its seven surrounding districts. In 1994, Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement at which time the active hostilities ended. The Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group ( Russia, France, and the US) are currently holding peaceful negotiations.
Azerbaijani President informed Mathew Bryza, the American co-chairman of Minsk Group of his principal consent to continue talks with Armenia during Bryza'a visit to the region, Novruzov said.
"Coordinating the date of the meeting will be discussed during my meeting with the OSCE Minsk Group chairmen in Vienna which will take place on 15 March. It will be a separate meeting with the co-chairmen and after our meeting the mediators will hold a meeting with the Azerbaijani foreign minister," he said.
The last meeting between acting Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Azerbaijani President took place in July 2007 in St Petersburg. The presidential term for Robert Kocharyan terminates on 9 April and Serj Sarkisyan who won the 19 February elections will take over the post of president.
According to Novruzov, the breach of the ceasefire agreement between the two countries cannot create setbacks for continued talks. "There are no other means but for negotiations in order to solve the conflict," he said.
The Armenian Armed Forces broke the ceasefire agreement once again on 4 March. According to official report of Azerbaijani Defense Industry, the ceasefire agreement by the Armenian Armed Forces claimed the lives of 12 Armenian soldiers and wounded 15. Four Azerbaijani soldiers also were killed and one soldier was wounded.