There is still need to hold talks on Karabakh, perhaps; however, this seems hardly possible in view of the recent stir over the pardon of murderer Ramil Safarov and Armenia’ stance: what will the Armenian and Azerbaijani Foreign Ministers talk about? Neither Edward Nalbandian, nor Elmar Mamedyarov are perhaps eager to meet, and the recent processes between the conflicting parties do not dispose to dialogue either. Azerbaijan seems to be doing its best to increase the hysteria within its country and beyond, but Baku’s actions increasingly fail to yield the results Ilham Aliyev expects to see. The OSCE co-chairs obviously understand this will be another routine meeting; the parties will voice their claims, and another MG statement will be published…

If foreign ministers of the two countries and the mediators were really interested in the progress towards signing a peace agreement, these actions would be understandable. Still, the negotiation parties realize perfectly well that no agreement will be signed without Karabakh’s Foreign Minister.

Probably, Baku is delaying this unpleasant “event” to the last. There is another interesting moment as well: France is the initiator of this meeting. At first sight, there is nothing extraordinary; being a co-chair country, it simply had to do this. Until recently, it was Russia that arranged the meetings, and never the U.S., however strange it may seem. As to France, during his visit to Paris Ilham Aliyev might have tried to address Francois Hollande on this, and the latter, to meet Aliyev’s request, urged the French Foreign Ministry to take actions in this direction. Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan is also going to visit France in the near future. Most likely, this will take place after the meeting of the foreign ministers.

The meeting agenda will not be limited to Karabakh issue, perhaps. The U.S., France and also Russia need to know how Armenia and Azerbaijan will act with regard to the ongoing civil war in Syria, and the Iranian issue as well. In case of military attack against Iran, it is Yerevan and Baku’s behavior, rather than taking sides that matters. However, one thing is clear: this is another meeting, another formality, for journalists and political scientists have something to talk about.