BAKU. Oct 28 (Interfax) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has said he stands ready to come to Moscow for negotiations with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, but doubts that Yerevan is capable of working constructively to settle the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh.
"I haven't received such an invitation [to Moscow for negotiations with Pashinyan]. I've repeatedly taken part in trilateral meetings among the presidents of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Russia, but there've been no such meetings since Pashinyan came to power in Armenia. These meetings were with the previous presidents of Armenia, and I've never evaded such meetings," Aliyev said in an interview with Interfax.
Aliyev said he saw those meetings as positive, as Russia plays a special role in the settlement process as a co-chair of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Minsk Group.
"Russia has always maintained close ties with both Armenia and Azerbaijan, and Russia is very actively cooperating politically and economically with Azerbaijan and Armenia these days; it's our neighbor. Therefore, it's natural that most of these meetings have been held in Russian territory, but there've been no such meetings with Pashinyan. I don't know how efficient they're going to be now... But if such a proposal is made, we've always viewed them positively and will continue to do so," he said.
Aliyev said he is prepared to come to Moscow for negotiations with Pashinyan, "as you've said, without any preconditions."
"This is evident from the fact that our foreign ministers will be meeting in Geneva tomorrow, also without any preconditions," Aliyev said.
"Moreover, I'd like to say that, when the conflict only began, our foreign minister had plans to visit Geneva [on October 8] to meet with the [OSCE Minsk Group] co-chairs, and he did go there. And the Armenian foreign minister, who had planned to travel there a week before, in early October, refused to go. And when a proposal from Moscow came on a meeting between the foreign ministers [on October 10] to coordinate a humanitarian ceasefire, our foreign minister flew there from Geneva. That is, we aren't setting any terms," he said.
"But again, I really doubt that the current Armenian authorities are capable of constructively working toward a settlement," Aliyev said.