The Armenian Foreign Ministry said Nalbandian will meet with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top U.S. officials on Thursday. It said nothing about the agenda of those meetings.
The Karabakh dispute is certain to figure prominently during the talks. The United States has been spearheading international efforts to help resolve it together with France and Russia.
Diplomats from the three mediating powers last month urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to finalize a framework peace accord proposed by them.
In a statement, the Armenian Foreign Ministry said Nalbandian and Juppe discussed the unresolved conflict on Tuesday. “Both sides emphasized the absence of an alternative to a peaceful and negotiated solution to the problem,” it said, adding that Nalbandian praised France’s “constructive” role in the Armenian-Azerbaijani negotiating process.
The statement said the two ministers also touched upon bilateral relations. “Alain Juppe underlined that truly friendly and close relationships have been formed between Armenia and France,” it said.
The French Foreign Ministry issued no statements on the meeting.
Nalbandian also met with a foreign policy adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy later in the day. His press office said they discussed preparations for Sarkozy’s visit to Armenia scheduled for the second half of this year.