The joint presidential statement of US, Russia and France on add-ins to Madrid principles was anticipated, Expert and former RA Ambassador to Syria David Hovhanissyan told NEWS.am on July 11. “The statement sums up this stage of negotiation process,” he said stressing that the aim of talks was “to ease tasks of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in their societies.”

As per Nagorno-Karabakh’s independence being actually secured by the add-ins to the basic document, Hovhanissyan declared: “I suppose Foreign Ministries of the two states will comment on it based on their own interests solely.” “I would like to emphasize that without Nagorno-Karabakh’s involvement the negotiations will doom to make no headway,” he stated.

Responding to the question of NEWS.am, whether the joint statement can be regarded as a victory or achievement of Armenian diplomacy, the expert said: “The real victory of Armenian diplomacy would have been establishment of a permanent and fruitful cooperation with Azerbaijan based on the right of Nagorno-Karabakh’s nation for self-determination. However, we have a long way to go.” “The process of negotiations is difficult and will take a while, as the sides disagree on basic principles and, besides the joint statement of the presidents, opinions of the key world players on the problem differ,” Hovhannisyan concluded.