You can't push Nagorno Karabakh negotiations forward when Azerbaijan is shooting or staging provocations along the line of contact, deputy Armenian foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters on Thursday, June 29.

"Adequate atmosphere is a precondition for the negotiation process," Kocharyan said, adding that no progress is possible otherwise.

"We must always be ready for the most venturesome steps our rival may take."

The deputy minister also noted in this context that calls for Azerbaijan to stick to agreements reached in Vienna and Saint Petersburg are no accident.

Armenian, Russian and Azerbaijani foreign ministers - Edward Nalbandian, Sergey Lavrov and Elmar Mammadyarov – held a working meeting in Moscow on April 28.

At the meeting, the officials continued discussions on the prospects of the Karabakh conflict settlement talks, stressing the need to implement the agreements reached at the Vienna and St. Petersburg summits in April and June 2016, respectively.