Baku, Azerbaijan, June 3
By Elmira Tariverdiyeva - Trend:
Azerbaijani and Armenian foreign ministers Elmar Mammadyarov and Edward Nalbandyan have reaffirmed their commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said the statement posted on the OSCE website.
The OSCE Minsk Group co-chairs Igor Popov (Russian Federation), James Warlick (the US) and Pierre Andrieu (France) met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov in Brussels on May 31 and with Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandyan in Paris on June 2 to discuss implementation of the decisions from the May 16 summit in Vienna, said the statement.
The Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Ambassador Andrzej Kasprzyk also participated in the meetings.
The co-chairs delivered to the ministers for the consideration of the sides draft documents on expanding the existing office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and establishing an OSCE investigative mechanism, according to the statement.
The OSCE statement said also that the ministers confirmed the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents' agreement on the next round of talks to be held in June with an aim to resuming negotiations on a comprehensive settlement.
The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.