According to the five-sided statement issued in Astana, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict must be settled peacefully, by means of negotiations, RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian stated in an interview with the ArmenPress News Agency. “In speaking at the Summit, the heads of almost all the OSCE member-states stressed that the utter unacceptability of use force and/or threat of force. The Russian President emphasized it in his speech. I think it was a serious warning to the Azerbaijani leadership,” Minister Nalbandian said.

As to Baku’s selective approach to the three principles of settling the conflict, Minister Nalbandian said: “In Astana, the three mediator-states called on the sides to focus their efforts on the basic settlement principles. It was a clear response to Baku’s attempts to evade harmonized application of all the principles. The joint statement issued in Astana highlights the Moscow declaration approved by the Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani Presidents on November 2, as well as the statement issued in Astrakhan on October 27, 2010. It stresses that the international principles, U.N. Charter and Helsinki Final Act, as well as the L’Aquila statement of July 10, 2010 and the Moscow statement of June 26, 2010, must serve as a basis for the settlement,” Nalbandian said.

“Besides the five-sided statement, all the 56 OSCE member-states approved a declaration underlining the necessity for efforts to settle existing conflicts by mean of peaceful negotiations, within the present formats and international legal norms incorporated in the U.N. Charter and Helsinki Final Act,” Minister Nalbandian said. He stressed that the international community’s approaches are in full harmony with Armenia’s approaches.

On the occasion of the OSCE Summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, the Heads of Delegation of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries (the President of the Russian Federation Dmitri Medvedev, the Prime Minister of France Francois Fillon, and the Secretary of State of the United States Hillary Rodham Clinton), the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, and the President of Armenia Serge Sargsian agreed that the time has come for more decisive efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

The Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan reaffirmed their commitment to seek a final settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, based upon: the principles and norms of international law; the United Nations Charter; the Helsinki Final Act; as well as the statements of Presidents Medvedev, Sarkozy, and Obama, at L’aquila on July 10, 2009, and at Muskoka on June 26, 2010.

NEWS. am reminds readers that the prearranged Russian-Armenian-Azerbaijani presidential meeting failed.