Official website of the President of Russia

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Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon,

As you know, we had two meetings. To start with, two Presidents, the President of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan, held talks in my presence. These were three-party talks. Later, the Caucasian Quartet held a meeting with an expanded agenda, which included issues concerning the whole region. The heads of state have asked me to express my opinion on these meetings. I can definitely say that all of us believe that in both cases these consultations were very useful, productive and, I should say, rather constructive.

Above all we discussed security problems. We and the people of our countries are well aware of the fact that the region has become bogged down with problems. The peoples of all countries in the region suffered a lot after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Many citizens of our respective countries suffered, and are still suffering, from harsh consequences and hostilities. Homeless people are suffering in many countries. Many countries still face refugee problems. We focused on all these issues. We discussed the need to develop wide-ranging cooperation, the need for expanding collaboration, primarily in culture, and the need for expanding contacts and developing infrastructure.

All the heads of state highly praised a scientific forum recently help in Moscow that discussed problems in the Caucasus. We agreed that we would promote the development of this forum and hold meetings between the Speakers of our respective Parliaments. This is what I’d like to stress in my statement. Personally I highly praise our achievements. I highly praise our open, and in my opinion, productive talks.