Azerbaijan and Armenia to exchange captives

Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan Ilham Aliev and Serzh Sargsyan agreed to exchange prisoners of war, said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a press conference after a tripartite meeting with the heads of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

"The parties have just coordinated a joint statement, humanitarian by its nature, but very important in view of various difficulties, observed today in Armenian-Azerbaijani relations on Nagorno-Karabakh. This is a special declaration aimed at strengthening confidence-building measures and immediate exchange of prisoners and return of casualties' bodies," said Mr Medvedev.

According to the Russian President, for this purpose, "Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia have agreed, as the first step, to immediately exchange prisoners and return the bodies with assistance of the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and the International Committee of the Red Cross," the ITAR-TASS reports.

Besides, as reported by the Russian leader, Baku and Yerevan can agree on the principles of Karabakh settlement by the end of this year, the RIA "Novosti" reports.

As previously reported by the "Caucasian Knot", the today's meeting of Medvedev, Aliev and Sargsyan took place in Astrakhan. It was initiated by the Russian party. The previous meeting of the three took place on January 26 in Sochi.