YEREVAN. – At this phase it is hard to speak about a progress in negotiations.

Deputy Foreign Minister Shavarsh Kocharyan on Thursday told the aforementioned to reporters at the National Assembly of Armenia. He noted this commenting on the Armenian and the Azerbaijani foreign ministers’ next meeting, which is slated for mid-January. 

Reflecting on the expectations from this talk, Kocharyan said: “It’s hard to talk about progress because there is no climate of trust between the parties [to the Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) conflict]; it’s absolutely absent. We all have witnessed various statements, which are consistent with Armenia’s foreign political stances that it is indispensable to introduce those mechanisms under whose conditions that climate will be formed.”

In his words, maintenance of the ceasefire is one of the priorities of the abovementioned conditions.

“From this viewpoint, the meetings are first of all aimed at reducing tension,” added the Armenian deputy FM. “Of course, we have losses, there are shots [being fired]; but the meetings contribute to the dropping of the level of tension.”

And when asked whether the Armenian and the Azerbaijani FMs’ next meeting could be followed by a talk between the two presidents, Shavarsh Kocharyan responded as follows, in particular: “Such meetings depend on the meetings of the foreign ministers.”