The Chairman of the Russian Army General Staff, Colonel-General Valery Gerasimov called for a peaceful solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, ITAR-TASS reported.
He met with Azerbaijani Defence Minister Zakir Gasanov on Monday, April 7, to discuss further military-technical cooperation and ways to increase it. One of the main tasks facing Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia is to solve the Karabakh issue in order to move forward and rule out the use of force, Gerasimov said.
Gasanov said cooperation between the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan and Russia was developing at a high level in all areas, including military development, education, and military-technical ties. "The Armed Forces of Azerbaijan are receiving modern Russian weapons, tanks, combat vehicles and artillery systems. All this helps strengthen our country's defence capability," Gasanov said. Speaking of Nagorno-Karabakh, he said, "I hope that as a co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia will facilitate a peaceful resolution of this issue."
To note, the meeting of commanders of general staff of the CIS armed forces is being held in Baku. The Armenian delegation received the invitation to take part in the meeting and was going to leave for Baku. However, the visit failed as the Azerbaijani party said it cannot secure reception of the Armenian delegation.