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Sweden hosts Armenian foreign minister

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  • Sweden hosts Armenian foreign minister

    Earthtimes (press release), UK
    Nov 7 2008


    Sweden hosts Armenian foreign minister
    Posted : Fri, 07 Nov 2008 15:24:10 GMT
    Author : DPA


    Stockholm - Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt held talks Friday with
    visiting Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian. Bildt said he
    welcomed the joint declaration this week by the presidents of Russia,
    Armenia and Azerbaijan to seek a peaceful solution to the
    Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, referring to the breakaway region claimed
    by both Armenia and Azerbaijan.

    Bildt said the recent war between Russia and Georgia over the
    breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia showed the danger that
    so-called "frozen conflicts never stay frozen."

    The Swedish foreign minister said he hoped to visit Yerevan before
    Sweden takes over the six-month rotating presidency of the European
    Union in July 2009.

    In a speech organized by the Institute for Security and Development
    Policy, Nalbandian said that the conflict in Georgia was a "matter of
    grave concern" for Armenia.

    As a neighbouring state, 70 per cent of Armenia's transits go through
    Georgia so "any major event in Georgia, echoes in Armenia," he said.

    The meeting of the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Moscow was
    "a step forward," Nalbandian said.

    Nalbandian also noted that while the ramifications of conflict in
    Georgia were yet to be assessed, it had sent a signal that "war is
    never an answer."

    Nagorno-Karabakh, inhabited mainly by ethnic Armenians, pulled out of
    the Soviet Republic of Azerbaijan in 1988, triggering fighting. A
    ceasefire has been in place since 1994.
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