Kerry, Sarkisian Meet in Poland; Discuss NKR Peace

WARSAW, Poland (A.W.)—Armenian President Serge Sarkisian met with United States Secretary of State John Kerry in Warsaw on July 8, to discuss the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabagh (Artsakh/NKR) conflict.

Sarkisian, who is on a working visit to Poland, arrived to the country earlier in the day, where he will participate in the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member and non-member states dedicated to the “Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan,” reported the press office of the President of Armenia.

During the meeting—which was also attended by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Minsk Group U.S. Co-Chair James Warlick—Sarkisian commended the U.S.’s ongoing commitment to a peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group. Sarkisian also thanked Kerry for his efforts to ease tensions through the two joint statements released in Vienna and St. Petersburg in the aftermath of Azerbaijan’s large-scale attack on NKR in early April.

According to the press statement, Sarkisian also expressed his condolences to Kerry regarding the tragic incident that took place in Dallas, Texas on July 7, which resulted in the death of five police officers. 

Sarkisian and Kerry also discussed the telephone conversation between U.S. President Barack Obama and  Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 6, during which Putin’s June 20 trilateral meeting with Sarkisian and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev was discussed. According to a press statement released by the White House, during the conversation Obama conveyed his “readiness to intensify efforts” along with Russia and France, as co-Chairs of the Minsk Group, in order to achieve a comprehensive settlement to the NKR conflict.

Last week, Kerry spoke with Sarkisian and Aliyev in separate telephone calls to discuss the peaceful settlement of the Artsakh conflict. Spokesperson for the United States Department of State John Kirby said in a press briefing on June 30, that Kerry noted “positively” that the ceasefire along the NKR Line of Contact (LoC) and the Armenia-Azerbaijan border has largely held in recent weeks. In his conversations, he also urged the presidents to “avoid ‎tensions to advance the peace process.”

Source: Armenian Weekly Mid-West