BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 4
Trend:
Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry has commented on the reasons why the meeting with the Armenian side did not take place in Stockholm, Trend reports.
"A few hours before the meeting scheduled for December 3, a provocation was committed from the Armenian side. Information was disclosed about the illegal visit of Armenian MPs to the territory of Azerbaijan. Thus, the Azerbaijani side didn’t consider it expedient to hold a meeting of the ministers of the two countries in Stockholm in response to this provocation," Leyla Abdullayeva, spokesperson for the ministry, said.
Abdullayeva reminded that on December 2 - 3, Stockholm hosted the 28th meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Ministers of the OSCE countries, in which Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov took part.
"Before the meeting, the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs made a proposal to hold the next meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan and Armenia in Stockholm. Azerbaijan is a supporter of the dialogue. At previous meetings in New York, Minsk and Paris, the Azerbaijani Foreign Minister brought to the attention of the opposite side the position of Azerbaijan in connection with the issues of normalizing relations between Azerbaijan and Armenia in the post-conflict period. However, on December 3, a few hours before the scheduled meeting, a provocation was committed from the Armenian side. Information was spread about illegal visits by Armenian deputies to Azerbaijani territories,” she said.
"Therefore, the Azerbaijani side, in response to this provocation of Armenia, considered it inexpedient to hold a meeting of the foreign ministers," Abdullayeva said.