BAKU (Combined Sources)–Russian President Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Azerbaijan on Thursday for a two-day visit to focus on economic ties, cooperation in the Caspian Region, and the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the Russian RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The long-running conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno Karabakh will be high on the agenda, RIA Novosti cited Sergei Prikhodko, an aide to Medvedev, as saying. As a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group with France and the United States, Russia is at the center of international efforts to mediate a settlement.
“Though insignificant, there is some progress,” said Prikhodko. “The parties and mediators manage to continue the political settlement of the process.”
The Kremlin source also downplayed a recently signed defense pact between Armenia and Russia extending Moscow’s military presence in Armenia and committing it to defending its security.
“We are not saying that we will defend them [Armenians] against Azerbaijanis. The reactions in Azerbaijan are various. I do not think that those who are aware of the real situation are concerned very much; it is something else as far as the opposition is concerned. We don’t worry about it,” he said. “The [defense] document isn’t about military-technical cooperation between Armenia and Russia but rather about the protection of the border,” he said.
According to Armenian Public Radio, Prikhodko said the meeting between Medvedev and Aliyev would not focus on the Russian military base in Gyumri but on the more important issue of Karabakh.
The Russian source said Medvedev and Aliyev will discuss military cooperation between their two countries, but did not elaborate on the issue. It was recently announced that Azerbaijan will buy four Russian Ka-32 helicopters, used in utility cargo work and fire-fighting.
Russian energy giant Gazprom and Azerbaijan’s state oil and gas company, SOCAR, are also expected to sign a deal to increase supplies of Azerbaijani gas to Russia in 2011-2012.
Medvedev and Aliyev will also sign a border agreement that will delineate part of the land border that begins where Russia, Azerbaijan and Georgia meet and runs eastward to the Caspian Sea.
It is unclear whether the two presidents will discuss the status of the oil- and gas-rich inland Caspian Sea, which has been a source of long-running disagreements between the five littoral states – Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Turkmenistan – since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Watch, now all our Russophobes will run a muck with Medvedevs comments. Relax. It’s all diplomatic double talk. Azerbaijan has not invaded Artsakh because of Moscow, not because they are afraid of us…
Are you suggesting that Russia was the reason that Armenia won the Nagorno Krabakh war of 1991. Stop talking out of your backside. we all know what your agenda is. It is to set divisions amongst the armenians. Are you implying that our brave heroes who sacrificed everything for the motherland and freedom were just a phantom of our imagination? If so, you are not only insulting their memory and heroic deeds, but also insulting the intelligence of the Armenians.
What is your game?
SET DIVISIONS
CREATE CONFUSION
DIVIDE LOYALITIES
YOU ARE AN AZERIPHILIAC
Pick one, take your tablets, and go to sleep
Avetis is a jew
Well he’s certainly not Armenian. I would say that he is a sh*t stirer. But he does not know that others are far more sophisticated than he is and they can see through his twisted soul and his perverted sub message.
Absolutely agree with Avetis!!! Without a Russian factor, Azerbaijan would have taken not only Karabakh and its surrounding regions, but also half of Armenia to connect with Nakhichevan and Turkey. Militarily and economicly they are ready to do that. The only thing stopping them is Russian military base in Armenia. But I guess everything becomes more clear now: “Today Medvedev said in Baku that keeping Russian military base in Gyumri has nothing against Azerbaijan.” Russia retains its army in Gyumri, not in Karabakh, so the purpose of it to protect Armenian territories, which by international law excludes Karabakh and its surrounding regions. We’ll se very soon, how Azerbaijan will react to Russia’s position.