In an interview with RFE/RL on June 22, the US official tasked with mediating peace talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave indicated he and fellow diplomats had done as much as they could to foster a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Diplomats are expressing cautious optimism about the February 10 summit between the presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan in the Paris suburb of Rambouillet. According to sources close to the negotiators, the differences are narrowing between the two sides on a framework agreement on the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Russia and Georgia signed an agreement May 30 on the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia by 2008. The presence of the troops has bedeviled Russian-Georgian relations for the most part of the last decade. The agreement was signed in Moscow by Georgian Foreign Minister Salome Zourabichvili and her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.
