Azerbaijan`s Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov has met with Russian Ambassador to the country Mikhail Bocharnikov at his request.
The sides exchanged views on several issues on the agenda of bilateral relations, including the development of cooperation in economic, trade, cultural, humanitarian and other spheres, as well as the continuation of successful collaboration in multilateral formats.
Ambassador Mikhail Bocharnikov, upon the instructions from his authorities, invited Minister Elmar Mammadyarov to take part in the next meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers scheduled for April 5 in Moscow.
FM Mammadyarov expressed his thanks for this invitation. Mammadyarov underlined the strategic nature of the existing relations between Azerbaijan and Russia and stressed the role of the Russian Federation as one of the Co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group in the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement process. In this regard, it was underlined that the participation of the Russian state officials in the second meeting of the Russia-Armenia Lazarev Club, which took place in Moscow on March 5-6 with the participation of representatives from the illegal regime created in the territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan occupied by the Republic of Armenia, has caused the Azerbaijani side’s protest. The foreign minister also said that the dissatisfaction with the invitation of representatives of this illegal regime to the first meeting of the above-mentioned Club held in Yerevan late last year, where the provocative statements against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Azerbaijan were made, has been delivered to the Russian side. It was pointed out that such cases contradict the normative legal framework defining the basis of the Azerbaijani-Russian bilateral relations as well as Russia’s role as mediator.
The sides also exchanged views on the recent regional and global developments.