YEREVAN (Armenprss)–Azeri president Haydar Aliyev expressed his readiness to meet with Armenian president Robert Kocharian–Monday during a meeting with Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory Berdennikov
Aliyev said he was ready to meet with Kocharian at the CIS summit scheduled for January 25. Berdennikov–who arrived in Baku from Yerevan to hold political consultations with CIS states’ leaders on the eve of the summit–said that his country was welcoming the dialogue between the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan around the Karabakh conflict settlement.
"I believe that Kocharian-Aliyev direct ties will bring positive shifts in the regulation process," Berdennikov is quoted as saying.
Meantime Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze told reporters in Tbilisi that the idea of signing the security and co-operation pact in the Caucasus is not only a regional but a world scale strategic issue.
Shevardnadze said that all four Caucasian states Russia–Georgia–Azerbaijan and Armenia must more actively co-operate with the US–Turkey and European states for creation of a new security and co-operation system in the region.