Speech by the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, and his answers to questions from the mass media during the joint press conference summarising the results of negotiations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Elmar Mammadyarov, Baku, 18 June 2014

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We had very valuable negotiations with Elmar Mammadyarov. Azerbaijan is our strategic partner. We are developing our relations on the basis of the principles of friendship, neighbourliness, equality and mutual benefit. These principles have shaped our relationship over the ages; we should multiply and transfer them to future generations.

Our cooperation is developing intensively not only in the bilateral format, but also in different multilateral areas, including stability and security problems in the South Caucasus and in the Caspian region.

As Elmar Mammadyarov has said, our work is based on the agreements reached, when the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, visited Azerbaijan in August 2013. There is an intensive exchange of delegations – a series of events with participation of Russian representatives of executive and legislative power are scheduled for June in Azerbaijan. A reciprocal flow of delegations is sent to Russia as well. The Russian-Azerbaijani regional forum will be held in Gabala in the near future, where 200 representatives from 25 constituent entities of the Russian Federation will participate. The Baku international humanitarian forum, which is held under patronage of presidents of our two countries, is scheduled for this October. We noted with satisfaction that the preparations are going well.

We have set up regular dialogue on regional and international problems. We touched upon the situation in the Nagorny Karabakh settlement. We welcomed the meeting between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in Vienna last autumn. We noted the efforts of the co-chair of the OSCE Minsk Group to promote the formalisation of the understanding reached between the presidents. The quicker we coordinate the sequence of practical steps, which will allow the deescalation of the situation and come to a sustainable settlement, the better it is for Armenia, Azerbaijan and the entire Caucasian region.

We touched upon the situation in Ukraine. Tragic events are happening there – people are dying in the area of military actions, your colleague journalists are dying, as happened yesterday with two VGTRK correspondents. We express our condolences and confirm our solidarity with all those who are working in the zone of military actions. We believe that it is another signal for an immediate cease fire and de-escalate the situation and begin negotiations on the basis of the propositions, which are included into the Geneva Statement of the 17 April and the "roadmap" of the Current OSCE President.

We exchanged opinions on the situation in the Middle East – in Syria, Iraq and area around these countries – because, firstly, we are close to this troubled region, and, secondly, international terrorism has raised its head there now, and those who join its troops will not stop at promoting their harmful plans only there. This is our common task, because it is a threat for everybody – for Russia, Azerbaijan and Europe. We agreed to activate contacts in all the directions for the purposes of counter-terrorism.

We reviewed the problems of the Caspian cooperation in the context of preparations for the 4th Caspian summit, which is scheduled for the end of September in Astrakhan. We discussed the course of preparation of the final documents of this important event.

We agreed to extend our cooperation within the framework of international organisations – the UN, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe where Azerbaijan is a president in the Ministerial Committee. We expect there to be close cooperation in other multilateral formats as well.

I am quite satisfied with the results of the negotiations and express sincere gratitude to my colleague and friend for his traditional hospitality.

Question: In the near future the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada is going to turn to the President Petro Poroshenko asking him to introduce a martial law in the territory of the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions. In your opinion, how will it affect the situation in the region, and won't it lead to the de-escalation, of which they are talking so much?

Furthermore, could our please comment on the information that Petro Poroshenko proposes a unilateral cease fire to let the separatists, as he calls them, in the East of Ukraine lay down their weapons.

Sergey Lavrov: As to the idea to introduce a martial law, I do not see how it can lead to de-escalation. On the contrary, the martial law is introduced to give a free hand for the authorities, to rely on the brutal military force even more to suppress protests in the South-East. Therefore, I expect that the Verkhovna Rada will be reasonable, although, I repeat, nothing can be excluded. We have seen many manifestations of unimaginable aggression from the current Ukrainian leaders.

The same concerns the unilateral cease fire. If the aim of this initiative is to make the cease fire comprehensive, so that the insurgents, protesting against the authorities, could show their good will; if negotiations followed, representatives of the South-East were invited to them, then I guess it would be the step, which the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promised to make and which we are waiting from him so much. Or everything is formulated like a unilateral cease fire for a certain period, to let the insurgents lay down their weapons, and then, as Kiev promised (they are conflicting in their strong statements) to put them into prison for life. I heard of another variant, that such a temporary cease fire is required to let the "separatists" leave the territory of Ukraine. This is close to ethnic cleansing, if it is proposed that Russian-speaking and ethnically Russian population leave the country and if the authorities do not want to consider their legal obligations towards them. I also read a reprint of one of Ukrainian newspapers, that the parallel plan is to resettle up to 250,000 of Ukrainian nationals from western regions to the South-East. You know, this is undoubtedly serious social engineering.

If it is true, then such intents are contrary to the trends of the modern European civilisation, which consist in the need for everybody to live and have respect for ethnic, language, cultural, humanitarian and religious traditions. If we talk about European values, then the way the Ukrainian representatives conducted negotiations about gas – exclusively based on ultimatums, showing no negotiation culture – they did this in an un-European way. This is probably is the behaviour of those, who believe that they are exclusive or their patrons are exclusive. This is where the all-permissiveness is born. These are links of one chain: both the absolutely outrageous uncompromising ultimatum position at negotiations, and intents to resolve the conflict in the South-East by introducing a martial law or using ultimatums against their nationals.

Question: Russia is inviting Azerbaijan to join the EurAsEC. How will the conflict in the Nagorny Karbakh be resolved within this organisation, if Azerbaijan joins it?

Sergey Lavrov (answers after Elmar Mammadyarov): There was no formal invitation to Azerbaijan to join the Customs Union or the created Eurasian Economic Union. However, in the contacts between our leaders, when they touched upon the topic of economic cooperation, we always noted that we will be pleased to have any partner who shows interest in becoming closer to the Customs Union and later the Eurasian Economic Union.

The Nagorny Karabakh problem has nothing to do with the process of the Eurasian economic integration, which are currently taking place between Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, and very soon Armenia, after respective documents are signed. These processes are taking place in the territories of the states, which are members of the Customs Union. Nagorny Karabakh is not such a state, it is a subject matter of international negotiations, which are conducted based on a range of principles, which were agreed between the parties. Armenia already announced its participation in the WTO within the framework of the borders recognised by the UN, it does not pretend to have any other borders. The same will take place with regard to the Eurasian Economic Union.