Baku, Azerbaijan, March 11
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
The OSCE Minsk Group hopes the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia Ilham Aliyev and Serzh Sargsyan will meet in March, OSCE Minsk Group U.S co-chairman James Warlick wrote on Twitter on March 11.
"The OSCE Minsk Group hopes the Presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia will meet this month," he said. "Only they can address the most difficult issues of peace."
"Productive talks on key issues and the way forward on a negotiated settlement were held among OSCE Minsk Group co-chairmen and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov," he added.
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov met with OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs in Paris on March 10, spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry Elman Abdullayev told Trend on March 10.
Co-chairs Igor Popov (Russia), Jacques Faure (France), James Warlick (the U.S.) and the OSCE Chairman-in-Office Personal Representative Andrzej Kasprzyk attended the meeting.
The parties expressed concern over non-settlement of the Armenian-Azerbaijani Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
The sides discussed the current situation in the negotiation process on the conflict settlement at a meeting in Paris.
Mammadyarov expressed the position of the Azerbaijani side, adding that the lack of a constructive approach from the Armenian side is an obstacle in the settlement of the conflict, promotion of a peace process, and the resumption of peace and stability in the region.
Mammadyarov reaffirmed the willingness of the Azerbaijani side to sign a comprehensive peace agreement, and stressed the need of withdrawal of Armenian armed forces from the occupied Azerbaijani territories to promote peace.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. Armenian armed forces have occupied 20 per cent of Azerbaijan since 1992, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts.
Azerbaijan and Armenia signed a ceasefire agreement in 1994. The co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group, Russia, France and the U.S. are currently holding peace negotiations.
Armenia has not yet implemented the U.N. Security Council's four resolutions on the
liberation of the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.