Elmar Mammadyarov: Good afternoon! As you know, Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov is on a working visit to Azerbaijan. After the meeting with the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan H.E Mr. Ilham Aliyev with Sergey Lavrov yesterday, we had a quite intensive discussion with him. We discussed the bilateral cooperation and also the progress achieved on the settlement of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. It is known that Sergey Lavrov was in Yerevan on the 4th of July. Afterwards, he visited Azerbaijan. That was implemented according to the agreement achieved in the meeting of presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia in Sankt-Peterburg. In the agreement it was intended that the Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation would visit to Yerevan and Baku in order to discuss the progress achieved on the convergence of positions in the settlement of the conflict. I can say that the information which Sergey Lavrov has shared with us is principally quite positive. The Azerbaijani side assesses that we are having an intensive dialogue on the issue at the moment. We can call it even trilogue. H.E Mr. Vladimir Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, the co-chair country of the Minsk Group takes an active part in this process. Mr. Putin had phone talks with both of the Presidents of France and the United States of America on the results of Sankt-Peterburg meeting.

While in Warsaw, we had a possibility of meeting with the President of France and the Secretary of State of the United States of America. Of course, all these meetings and conversations have been conducted to find a solution for the non-agreed texts and concepts on the settlement of the conflict. In principle, there is an agreement which is to solve the problems related to the conflict gradually, step-by-step. Military component pose a main threat to the security not only of our country, but also all the region which is now almost global.

We had discussions on the assessment of bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and Russia, as well. According to the assessment of Azerbaijani side, the relationship between Azerbaijan and Russia has a level of strategic partnership. The level of political interaction is very high. The sides have a great interest for the development of economic field. We agreed to hold a meeting of the intergovernmental economic commission. We talked about linking the North-South transport corridor which is an interesting project currently. Several months ago, foreign ministers of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran had gathered in Baku. The sides had decided to hold a meeting of presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran again in Baku. I think we will come to the final agreement next month. The three sides share the idea of importance of implementing this transport corridor which has great economic perspectives as a whole. 

Inter-parliamentary diplomacy between the two parliaments is functioning quite well. That envisages the cooperation in the international arena, within international interparliamentary structures, as well.

We had also discussions on the humanitarian dimensions of our cooperation. It is well known that a number of Russian universities have branches in our country. Today I have got good news that Azerbaijan State Economic University is planning to open its branch in Derbent, Dagestan. We discussed with Sergey Lavrov the fact that with how big enthusiasm the Azerbaijani public welcomed the music festival “Jara”. We would be very happy to hold this festival annually either in Azerbaijan or Russia. The next humanitarian forum under the patronage of Presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia is set to be held in Baku, in September. A large number of foreign guests have been invited to that forum. This forum once again proves that the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Russia in the humanitarian field is quite high. Thank you!

Q&A session:

Question: How the relationship between Azerbaijan and Türkiye influences on the normalization of relations between Russia and Türkiye?

Elmar Mammadyarov: I will tell you a little secret. The issue of normalization of relationship between Türkiye and Russia was also a topic of our discussions. Sergey Lavrov with pleasure shared with us the information on the continuation of the normalization of relationship between the two sides. Azerbaijan welcomes it. We are glad for it. You know, the position of Azerbaijan towards good neighborhood policy is one of its foreign policy priorities. The better relationship exists between the big neighbors of Azerbaijan as Russia and Türkiye, the more beneficial is for Azerbaijan, from all points of view: foreign, internal, political and economic. Therefore, we only welcome it and remain very pleased to such a development of events.

Question: Have you defined the venue and date of the next meeting of the presidents? There was a proposal by France. I am talking about the commencement of substantive negotiations on the settlement of the conflict. Which proposals exactly do you have on the table of negotiations at the moment?

Elmar Mammadyarov: I can add that if journalists conduct an appropriate analysis, they would see what the subject of discussions is. The negotiations are revolving around the same topic. You can understand what we discuss from the analysis of speeches and words. To achieve progress, in earlier times the negotiations were not as intensive as now. The negotiations are being conducted intensively and substantively around the topic. Within such intensive and consistent discussions, the issues unresolved on the table of negotiations can be discussed with optimism in the future. 

Talking about the next meeting of the presidents, after the Sankt-Peterburg meeting at the initiative of Vladimir Putin, his phone talks with the Presidents of France and the United States respectively, as well as taking into consideration the results of Sergey Lavrov’s visits to Yerevan and Baku, will determine the next steps including the meeting at the presidential level. It does not matter whether this meeting will be held in France or in the other Minsk Group co-chair country. The crucial issue for us is that the negotiations must be substantive and result-oriented; no one should have an illusion of everlasting negotiations. 

Thank you!

The full video of the joint press conference can be obtained from the following link